492 Transactions 
Pluvialis dominicus fulvus (Gmelin), 1789. Pacific golden plover. 
Buller, Suppl. Birds N.Z., vol. 1, p. 174.  Pluvialis dominicus 
fulvus Mathews and Iredale, Ibis for April, 1913, p. 252; 
Ridgway, Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. No. 50, pt. 8, p. 88, 1919. 
The golden plover, which is a common annual migrant, does not pack 
into dense flocks as do the godwit and the knot, but is usually met with 
in rather thinly distributed companies. I have seen many hundreds of 
them at different times, but not more than a total of half a dozen showing — 
any sign of the black breeding-plumage on the breast. In the third wee ; 
of October, 1907, I was crossing from Sydney to Wellington, when we 
encountered a terrific southerly gale. During it, two golden plover i 
E 
z 
ga 
ro 
ES 
= 
from molestation by a sympathetic chief officer, and then us 4 
s is 
sometimes come before crossing from Australia to New Zealand. 
I will now give notes on some of the less-frequent visitors. 
Mesoscolopax minutus (Gould), 1840. Little whimbrel. E 
Numenius minutus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1840, p. 116. 
Mesoscolopax minutus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. vol. 24, _ 
р. 371, 1896; Buller, Suppl. Birds N.Z., vol. 1, p. 181, 1905 ; 
Mathews and Iredale, Ibis for April, 1913, p. 257; Ridgway, 
Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. No. 20, pt. 8, p. 411, 1919. ee 
Records. — (1.) Lake Ellesmere (June, 1900): Canterbury Museum 0 
(2.) Lake Ellesmere (bth March, 1921): Canterbury Museum. xe 
. This bird, of which there is only one previous record in New Zealand ——— 
(in 1900), has again been obtained. A specimen was shot at c С 
Ellesmere by Mr. L. A. Shand on the 5th March, 1921, and presented c 
to the Canterbury Museum. It is very like a golden plover in its winter — 
plumage, and, excepting for its larger size and its longer and curved — 
» might easily be mistaken for that bird at a distance. Both the 
specimens obtained are in full winter plumage. : P 
Vetola haemastica (Linnaeus), 1758. Hudsonian godwit, or American 
black-tailed godwit. E 
Scolopax haemastica Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., pl 147, 1758. ae 
Limosa hudsonica Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. 24, P- 388, uet 
s 4. 85, 905. И 3. 
limosa haemastica Mathews and Iredale, Ibis for April, Hes 
р. 258. Vetola haemastica Ridgway, Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. No. 9^ 
pt. 8, p. 191, 1919. Lue 
Records for New Zealand.—(1.) British Museum. (2) Canterbury 
Museum. (3.) Collection Edgar F. Stead. (4.) Canterbury Museum. — 
The first record of this bird in New Zealand was one which I shot ne? — - 
the mouth of the Selwyn in 1902, I did not see another until 1917, 
in that year, at Lake Ellesmere, I saw a single specimen on two occasions. 
