JOifE^si— ON itAKER filEDS OF NOVA SCOTIA- 71 



their reception. I have known them to be as late as the 1st of 

 April in passing north, although this is a very unusual occur- 

 rence. This was in 1863. They return south about the 1st of 

 September. The golden plover merely makes Nova Scotia 

 one of its resting ]3laces during the autumnal migration, for 

 very few are observed in spring. It arrives very punctually,, 

 o-enerally on or about the 224id of August, and in considerable 

 numbers. It stays about a week, and then passes to the south. 

 It is worthy of remark that the golden plover, in its progress 

 towards its northern breeding places, takes the land-route, 

 passing over the eastern portioji of the United States, Avhile ou 

 its passage north it takes the ocean-route. This latter course is 

 well authenticated by the remarks of that observant naturalist, 

 Mr. J. L. Hurdis, in " The Naturalist in Bermuda," who gives 

 the testimony of several well-known masters of merchant 

 vessels, in regard to the vast flights of these birds met with at 

 sea during their several passages from Nova Scotia to the West 

 Indies during the month of September, in various years. 



Their arrival in the West India Islands is also clearly estab- 

 lished by the same authority. The island of Antigua is annually 

 visited about the beginning of September by countless multitudes 

 of plover ; and on one occasion they made their appearance in 

 such multitudes in St. John's, the chief town of the colony, that 



the inhabitants were seen in every tlirectiou shootins: them from 



I 

 the doors and windows ; indeed, so numerous were they, that 



boys destroyed them with sticks and' stones, and shooting them 

 soon ceased to be considered spbrt. They remained in the 

 island for ten or fifteen days only, taking their departure south 

 as soon as the weather became settled. The island of Mar- 

 tinique is also visited by amazing numbers of these birds. In 

 Barbadoes, dming a south-west gale, on the morning of the 12th 

 September, 1846, these biids v/ere so numerous that they were 

 struck doAvn with stones, and thousands were shot. Mr. 

 Hurdis considers that after visiting the West India Islands, the 

 plover finally settle dovn for the winter months in Venezuela 

 and Guiana, and other northern portions of South America^ 



I have alluded, at the commencement of this paper, to the 

 effect of gales of, vind upon the arrival of birds at particular 



