124 



CHARADRIUS. 



Synonymy. 



Literature. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Charadrius semipalmatus, Kaup, Ms, 1825, p. 1376. 

 Charadrius brevirostris, Wied, Beitr. Nat. Bras. iv. p. 769 (1833). 

 Hiaticula semipalmata {Kaup), Gray, List Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 70 (1844). 

 iEgialeus semipalmatus {Kaup), Bonap. Compt. Rend, xliii. p. 417 (1856). 

 iEgialitis semipalmatus {Kaup), Cabanis, Journ. Orn. 1856, p. 425. 



Plates. — Wilson, Am. Orn. pi. 59. fig. 3. 



Habits. — Baird, Brewer, & Ridgway, Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 154. 



Eggs. — Thienemann, Abbild. Vogeleiern, pi. lix. fig. 5. 



The Semipalmated Ringed Plover possesses all the characters of the Einged Plover 

 (C. hiaticula), except that the iveb between the outer and middle toes reaches to the second 

 joint, and that between the inner and middle toes is well developed. 



It breeds in the Arctic and Sub-arctic Regions of North America from Alaska to 

 Greenland. On migration it passes along both coasts as well as in the interior, and occurs 

 annually in the Bermudas (Reid, Zoologist, 1877, p. 475); and in winter it is found in 

 the tropical regions of both continents, on all the West-India Islands, and on the Galapagos 

 Archipelago (Salvin, Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. p. 501). In South America Reeve procured it 

 from the coast of Ecuador (Tacz. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 119) ; and Capt. Markham 

 obtained it on the coasts of Peru and in Coquimbo Bay in Chili, about lat. 30° south 

 (Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 428). East of the Andes, Jelski obtained it in Central 

 Peru (Tacz. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 560) ; Wallace found it at the mouth of the Amazons 

 (Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 591) ; and I have examples collected by 

 Capt. Harrison at Santa Catharina, in lat. 28° south, and at Port Desire, in lat. 48° south. 



It is authoritatively stated (Nelson, ' Cruise of the Corwin,' p. 84) that the Semipal- 

 mated Plover is found " on both shores of Behring Sea, extending on the Alaskan coast 

 from the peninsula of Alaska north to Point Barrow, and along the entire north-eastern 

 Asiatic coast." As this species has never been found wintering on any of the Asiatic 

 shores of the Pacific, we may reasonably conclude that the Asiatic birds have only recently 

 extended their range so far west, and migrate eastwards in autumn. This fact (considered 

 in relation with the range of the European ally of this species, which breeds from the 

 American shores of Davis Straits across Greenland and Iceland to the Taimyr peninsula in 

 Siberia) strongly supports the theory that the ancestors of this little group of birds, which 

 I have called Hiaticulce majores, did not escape from the Polar Basin along either shore of 

 the Pacific Ocean. 



Like its European representative, its favourite feeding-grounds are the sandy shores of 

 islands and the mud-flats exposed at low water in the lagoons and estuaries of rivers. At 

 its breeding-grounds in the Arctic Regions and during migration it is much less of a 

 coast-bird, and often frequents the banks of rivers and lakes, and is sometimes found on 

 sandy fiats at some distance from water. 



