The Eastern Golden Plover. 79 



Family— CHARADRIID^. 



Eastern Golden Plover. 



Charadrius fulvus, GmEL. 



THERE are two forms of this bird, hardly (if at all) separable ; the present 

 one, which is Asiatic, and the American, which has been called dominicus 

 or virginicus. The American is a shade the larger, the secondaries slightly shorter 

 in proportion, and the yellow of the spots on the back the merest shade less vivid. 

 It almost requires a microscope to detect the differences, and Dr. Sharpe, in the 

 XXIV Vol. of the British Museum " Catalogue of Birds," very properly calls the 

 two forms identical. But as Mr. Saunders' list is followed in the present work, I 

 am obliged to treat them as different, and wish it to be understood that the 

 following remarks refer exclusively to Asiatic examples. 



Of these, four are on record as having been obtained in Britain; one was 

 found in Leadenhall market, amongst other Golden Plovers purporting to come 

 from Norfolk (Dresser, " Ibis," 1875, PP- 5I3-4)) respecting which exact information 

 is wanting. A second specimen was shot on the River Thames, off Shell Haven 

 Point, by Mr. H. Nunn, August 6th, 1896 (Zool. 1897, p. 330). The other 

 two have occurred in Scotland (Millais, " Zoologist," 1886, p. 26, Perthshire) ; 

 the third, from Orkney, Mr. Millais apparently thought to be only worthy of 

 passing mention in the " Field." Three examples have been obtained by Herr 

 Gatke in Heligoland, two in Malta, one in Spain, and one in Poland.* Its 

 breeding range extends from the Yenesei to the Pacific, and as far south as 

 Mongolia. Swinhoe, however, believed it to breed abundantly in S.W. Formosa 

 (" Ibis," 1863, 404), and Jerdon (" B. of I." ii, 637) that it breeds in India 

 in numbers down to Nellore (Madras). Modern confirmation of both these 

 statements is wanting, and it seems probable that both writers were misled by 

 seeing non-breeding birds (presumably not fully adult) during the breeding season. 

 The Eastern Golden Plover passes the China and Japan coasts on migration, 

 reaching S-E. Africa, Indo-Malaya, Australia, New Zealand, and Polynesia, in 

 winter. 



* Two specimens of this Asiatic Plover have been obtained on the mainland of Italy, and are preserved 

 in the University Museum at Rome. One of these is a male in full summer livery, shot on the Isola Sacra, on 

 May nth, 1897. The other is a male in winter dress (Avicula, 1897, p. 93). — H.A.M. 



