213 



Adult in summer. Upper parts darker, and with the golden spots larger and more conspicuous ; a band 

 across the forehead, and continued over the eyes down the sides of the neck fulvous white ; throat, 

 cheeks, fore neck, breast, and abdomen black, with a few white feathers intermixed ; sides of the body 

 white, varied with black; inner lining of wings and axillary plumes smoky grey; under tail-coverts 

 white, with irregular transverse bars of black. 



Note. The above description of the winter plumage is taken from a New-Zealand example presented to the 

 British Museum by Miss R. Stone. 



In Sharpe and Dresser's ' Birds of Europe,' where the above synonymy has already appeared, 

 there is an admirably exhaustive account of this species, which appears to have a very wide range 

 in the eastern part of the Old World, but only rarely makes its appearance in Europe. The above- 

 named authors have enumerated the localities in which it has occurred within the limits of the 

 Western Palsearctic region ; and they express their belief that this is the bird mentioned by Pallas, 

 under the name of C. pluvialis, as being exceedingly common in Siberia, whence it migrates in the 

 autumn in flocks, along with other species, to more southern latitudes. Steller observed it in 

 Kamschatka in autumn, and states that it breeds within the polar circle. Mr. Swinhoe gives its 

 range as extending throughout China. He procured it between Takoo and Peking, and says that 

 it is a common bird near Canton, where it passes the summer, while at Formosa it is plentiful all 

 the year round, breeding in great abundance on the south-west marshy plains. In the ' Museum 

 des Pays-Bas,' Professor Schlegel has recorded a list of specimens, more than sixty in number, 

 contained in the Leiden Museum, from which it would appear that examples have been collected 

 in nearly every island of the Malay archipelago. Dr. Jerdon writes : — " The Golden Plover 

 occurs throughout India in open plains, grassy downs, ploughed fields, and on the edges of rivers, 

 lakes, &c, associating in flocks of various magnitude and feeding on beetles and other land-insects, 

 worms, &c. ; " and Mr. Holdsworth reports that it is very common in winter in the northern 

 portion of Ceylon, sometimes extending as far south as Colombo. Mr. Gould states that it is 

 generally dispersed over all the colonies from Tasmania to the extreme north of the continent of 

 Australia, and adds that " its habits, manners, and general economy so closely resemble those of 

 the Golden Plover of Europe, that a description of one is equally characteristic of the other." 

 Drs. Finsch and Hartlaub have given a full account of the distribution of the species among the 

 islands of the South Pacific ; and Dr. E. Graffe, writing from Tongatabu, says that it is found on 

 that island all the year round, but is most numerous from October to March, and during the 

 season of migration. It occurs occasionally on the New-Zealand coast, but apparently only as a 

 straggler, and always in winter plumage. 



Mr. Swinhoe has given the following account of its nidification : — " Its eggs, four in number, 

 are laid in a loose nest of dried grasses and fibres placed in a hollow. They are of a greenish- 

 grey ground-colour, blotched and spotted with deep-blackish sepia, and have occasional obsolete 

 purplish-grey spots. They do not vary much in size, are narrowed near the end, and measure 

 1-5 inch by IT." 



2f 



