58 



THE PAEADISE OF THE CHAEADEIID^. 



Protective 

 colours of 



Hatching of 

 the young. 



Keturn of 

 winter. 



Enormous 



winter 



ransre. 



Not only are the colours of tlie birds belonging to the Charadriidse which breed in the 

 Arctic Regions protective, but those of their eggs are still more so ; they almost exactly 

 resemble the ground upon which they are placed. None of these birds make nests ; they 

 merely scratch a hollow or slight depression in the ground — sand, earth, moss, bog, grass, 

 or whatever it may be which they select, and where their eggs, generally four (in a few 

 species only two or three), are placed. The eggs are consequently extremely difficult to 

 find. No species of the Charadriidse lays white eggs, and every species lays eggs with two 

 sets of spots upon them, the first set being very much duller in colour than the second in 

 consequence of a layer of ground-colour which passes over it and half conceals it. If the 

 ground-colour on the pale spots be carefully scratched away with a knife, they will soon 

 appear as dark as the others. 



Very few eggs are laid on the tundra before the last week of June. At the end of 

 July young in down are running about, and at the end of August the return migration has 

 begun. Early in the latter month the sun begins to dip for a few moments below the 

 horizon, and every succeeding midnight sees him hide longer and longer, until in September 

 the nights are cold, the frost kills vegetation, and early in October winter sets in ; 

 all this wonderful abundance of bird-life vanishes, snow falls not to melt again for 

 eight months ; the nights get longer and longer until, towards the end of November, the 

 sun ceases to take his midday peep at the endless fields of snow, and for the next two 

 months night and silence reign supreme. The Ice-angel has closed the gates of the 

 paradise of the Charadriidse ; and the birds are banished to the coasts of the temperate and 

 tropical regions of the world, where they may be found everywhere. 



It is very remarkable to what enormous distances some of the birds belonging to this 

 group wander in winter. Many of them which breed in the Arctic Regions cross the 

 tropics to winter in the summer of the southern hemisphere ; some even occasionally go 

 as far as New Zealand, as the Asiatic Golden Plover {Charadrius fulvus), the Turnstone 

 (Strepsilas interpres), the Asiatic form of the Pectoral Sandpiper [Tringa acuminata), the 

 Asiatic form of the Bar-tailed Godwit {Limosa riifa uropygialii), the Australian Curlew 

 {Numenius cyanopus), the Oriental Whimbrel {Numenius phceopus variegatus), and the Knot 

 {Tringa canuius). The number of birds breeding in the Arctic Region and belonging to 

 the Charadriidse which visit AustraHa in winter is much greater. In addition to the seven 

 species which visit New Zealand, thirteen other species visit the larger island, making the 

 number of Arctic Charadriidse which visit AustraKa at least twenty. Quite as many visit 

 South Africa, and a considerable number stray as far as South America ; but so little is 

 known of the ornithology of the latter region that it would be difficult to say how many 

 species of Charadriidas winter in the temperate regions of that continent, in addition to the 

 species which are residents there. 



