SURF BIRD. 95 
Idaho and either Oregon or Nevada,' but in these three States it is 
unknown, and seems not to be recorded from Utah. So the birds 
that visit California are separated from. the nearest known habitat 
of the species by a zone about 600 miles wide and containing two 
ranges of high mountains. 
Spring migration—The mountain. plover is among the early 
migrant ‘shorebirds... It arrived. on the average at Beloit, Colo., 
March 26, earliest March 23, 1890 (Hoskins) ; Loveland, Colo. Nach 
18, 1887 (Smith).:. 
Eggs have been taken at Fort Lyon, Colo., June 9,.1886 (Thorne) ; 
San Luis Valley, Colo., June 10, 1873. (Henshaw) ; Proust hatched 
at Terry, Mont., ay ‘15, 1898 (Cameron); young at Colby, Kans., 
June 28, 1893 (Fisher) eggs near North Platte, Nebr., July 8, 1859 
(Suckley). 
Fall migration.—The a was seen at Corpus Christi, Tex., July 25, 
1887 (Sennett); Pecos. City, Tex., August 1, 1903 (azon). Quite 
a party of them was seen at James Island, Florida, July 20 to August iL 
1901 (Williams), but they were probably: only ‘stragglers. ‘The last 
one noted in 1890 at Beloit, Colo., was on October 15° (Hoskins). 
Surf Bird. Aphriza virgata (Gmel!): | 
The breeding range of the surf bird is unknown, for the bird has 
never been encountered in its summer home. It goes north along 
the Pacific coast of the United States in spring, and has been traced 
all along’ the coast to the Kowak River, ‘Alaska, where it arrived 
May 29,1899 (Grinnell). Then it disappears and is not seen again 
until on its way south the latter part of July. The natives say it 
breeds on the mountains a few miles’ back from the coast. 
The surf bird winters in Chile, as far south as the Strait of Magellan 
(Sharpe), and is known in migration on the coasts of Peru (Tschudi), 
Ecuador (Hartert), Mexico :(Xantus), and Lower California (Kaed- 
ing). It arrived at Newport, Oreg:, April:25, 1895; April 27, 1897; 
May 3, 1899; April 27, 1900; average of the four years April 28 
(Bretherton). Agreeing well with this date is its appearance at San 
Geronimo Island, Lower California, March 15, 1897 (Kaeding); and 
the date already given of May 29 at Kowak River, Alaska '(Grinnell). 
An extra early date is March 8, 1859, at Puget Sound, Washington 
(Kennerly).. The latest recorded date at the Strait of Magellan is 
March 3, 1879 (Sharpe); the species was. common at Abreojos Point, 
Lower California, April 19, 1897 (Kaeding); a belated bird was taken 
on the Farallon Islands, Calif., June 3, 1903 (Kaeding). Several 
appeared in fall migration at Sitka, Alaska, July :21 (Grinnell) ; New- 
port, Oreg., July 24, 1900 (Bretherton) ; Monterey Bay, Calif. , August 
3, 1894 (Loomis) ; Vaqueria, Ecuador, September 16, 1901 (Hartert). 
The species has been noted at St. “Michael, Alaska, until the first of 
October (N elson), and at Berkeley, Calif., as late as October 24, 1888 .- 
(Palmer). 
