106 BIRDS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 



As this bird lays four eggs in its own breeding-ground, in 

 Arctic America, we are of opinion tliat Schomburgk has mistaken 

 the identity of tiie bird, and we cannot rectify it. 



Mr. J. J. Quelch (Timehri {2) ii. p. .363) observed this species 

 on the Abary River, where he says that dense flights of "' Black- 

 breast '' or Golden Plovers {Charadrius vir^fi/ucus) occnsionally 

 came down the creek or settled in patches by the waterside. 



The following notes on the migration of this species are also 

 quoted from Mr. J. J. Quelch (Timehri (2) x. p. 266) : — ''The 

 most common of these migrants is certainly the American Golden 

 Plover (^Charadrbis virginicus), known also as Black- Vjreasts and 

 Greenbacks. Arriving here sparsely in August, they increase in 

 numbers in September and October, gradually dis:ippearing in 

 the latter month, until in Xovember, with the exception of a few 

 stragglers which may have been left behind, they [lasS southwards 

 in their further migration. On the lowlands ot the coast, on the 

 grassy spaces, and on the sandbanks, they will be found in often 

 quite large flights, though it is reported that the numbers recently 

 noticed are markedly fewer than in former years, \\hile at the 

 same time they vary greatly from year to year. On the interior 

 savannahs specimens have also been taken, but from their fewness 

 they should no doubt be regarded as stragglers. Richard Schom- 

 burgk, in his ' Reisen in British Guiana,' records the nesting of 

 this species on the sand-banks of the coast, the eggs being from 2 

 to 3 in number ; but unless some mistake was made as to the 

 species, the nesting can only have been quite occasional and due 

 to stragglers. The flesh of the bird, as in tlie case of nearly all 

 our migrants, is greatly in request for the table, and large numbers 

 of them are shot in the season. This continuous slaughter, which 

 they meet with along their entire course of migration, is no doubt 

 chiefly responsible for the very large reduction in the numbers 

 which are observed to appjear during the spring in the northern 

 latitudes, as contrasted with those that left during the autumn. 

 Though they are shy and timid, they seldom fly for any great 

 distance before they settle ag:iin after being disturbed, and owing 

 to the large numbers in a flight, it is not ditficult to secure them 

 in quantity. 



" The American Golden Plover was lor a long time confounded 

 with the European species, but the latter can readily be dis- 



