204 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



it seems to meet the Siberian form. It is said to breed in northern 

 British Columbia, and the specimens taken, although not referable, 

 according to Mr. S. N. Rhoads, to C. fulvus, are darker underneath 

 than eastern specimens. Brooks saw it, in the Cariboo district, 

 however, only during the fall migration. 



Breeding Notes. — ^The breeding quarters of this well known bird 

 are the Barren Grounds and the coasts and islands of the Arctic sea. 

 It hatches early in June, and retires southward in August. {Richard- 

 son.) This beautiful species is very numerous in the Barren Grounds 

 from the outskirts of the forest to the shores of the Polar sea. The 

 nests were found to be precisely similar to those of C. squatarola. 

 They were also as difficult to detect, and for the same reason, a 

 harmonizing resemblance of the egg markings to the surrounding 

 soil and a timeous departure of the female bird from her nest. I 

 find 170 nests recorded in my notes. Except when there was reason 

 to believe that the full number had not been deposited, four eggs 

 were always met with. In one case there were five and in another 

 only one. (Macfarlane.) Breeds commonly on Herschell island, 

 from where I received a number of sets of eggs. It makes a hollow 

 in the moss on the slopes of elevated and rising ground. (Raine.) 



This species arrives on the shores of Norton sound, Alaska, about 

 the end of May. They soon pair and disperse, so that a few days 

 after the main arrival, their nests may be looked for. The nests 

 are generally in small depressions, which may be found among the 

 moss and dried grass of a small knoll, and at times a slight structure 

 is made of dried grass. The grass, and perhaps, a few dead leaves 

 of the dwarf willow are arranged in a circular, saucer-shaped form, 

 about four or five inches across, and contain four eggs, which have 

 a pale, yellowish ground colour, with very dark well-defined umber- 

 brown spots, scattered rather profusely over the shell, especially 

 about the larger end. (Nelson.) The golden plover arrives at 

 Point Barrow about the end of May. It was nesting before June 

 2oth, both seasons I was at Point Barrow, though I was unable to 

 find its nest before the 22nd. The nest is exceedingly hard to find, 

 although it is not concealed at all, but is simply a depression in the 

 bare black clayey tundra, lined with a little dried moss. The only 

 vegetation on this part of the tundra is white and grayish moss, 

 which harmonize so extraordinarily with the pecuUar blotching of 

 the eggs, that it is almost impossible to see them unless one knows 



