450 



8 



parts of Russia, but exceedingly common, along with the Grey Plover, in Siberia, migrating 

 in the autumn in flocks, along with other species, to more southern localities, at the same 

 time as the Dotterell. It affects cattle-pastures and the banks of small rivers. Steller likewise 

 observed it in Kamschatka in autumn. It breeds within the polar circle. Dr. Taczanowski also 

 says that Dybowsky has sent individuals, in different stages of plumage, from Dauria and Lake 

 Baikal, and he has also obtained it from southern Siberia. Von Middendorff says that he observed 

 it on the Tundras of the Taimyr, at 74° N. lat., in full summer plumage ; but large flocks only 

 appeared on the 4th of June. On the 17th of June they had eggs. On the 2nd of August they 

 assembled on lake Taimyr, to return ; and after the 9th of August none were visible. On the 

 Boganida (70° N. lat.) they arrived on the 24th of May, and the last were seen on the 31st of 

 August. They nested on the moors of Uldskoj-Ostrog. He remarks that some of his birds, shot 

 in the high north, had the axillaries white, but that the birds procured at Uldskoj-Ostrog were 

 small and had brownish-grey axillaries, though the tarsi measured only 37 - 5 millims. Dr. von 

 Schrenck procured, through Dr. Maack, a female of this species, near Albasin, on the 15th of 

 June; and Dr. Radde observed it on the central Onon and in the Bureja mountains in September. 

 Concerning its occurrence in Japan, Mr. Henry Whitely writes : — " Although this is by no means 

 a rare bird, I never had the opportunity of seeing one alive, all my three specimens having been 

 bought of native dealers in Wild Ducks, Grouse, and the like, on the 24th of September and the 

 3rd of October, 1865, respectively." Mr. Swinhoe gives its range as throughout China. He pro- 

 cured it between Takoo and Peking, and says that it is a common bird near Canton, passing the 

 summer there. In Formosa, he writes, it is " common with us all the year round, breeding in 

 great abundance on the south-west marshy plains." During his excursion to Hainan he also met 

 with it, and gives the following note : — " This Golden Plover was common in the marsh near the 

 city on the 5th of February. We found it in the dry rice-fields of Paklai (W. Hainan), on the 

 21st of March, and abundant among the sweet-potato gardens of Hoitow (W. Hainan) on the 

 23rd of March. On the 2nd of April, at the part of Kiungchow, we found them on the beach ; 

 they were then beginning to acquire the black under dress of summer." Dr. Jerdon states : — 

 " 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 hard insects, worms, &c. It has a shrill whistling call, and flies very rapidly. 

 Many breed in this country, even towards the south, as at Nellore, but some appear to pass north- 

 wards for that purpose, and to return in September." The late Captain Beavan says " I found 

 this species tolerably abundantly in the neighbourhood of Julpigoorie, but I do not recollect it 

 in Maunbhoom. It is, occasionally, I hear, found near Umballah." Major Irby, in his notes on 

 ' Birds observed in Oudh and Kumaon,' says that the present species was found by him " in 

 flocks on the banks of the Logra and Choka, and occasionally on plains some distance from those 

 rivers." In Ceylon Mr. Holdsworth tells us that this species is very common in winter in the 

 north of the island, sometimes extending as far south as Columbo. 



It would be needless here to record the names of all the different Malayan localities where 

 the Eastern Golden Plover has occurred. In the ' Museum des Pays-Bas ' Professor Schlegel 

 gives a list of the specimens contained in the Leiden Museum, more than sixty in number, and 

 these prove that actual specimens have been collected in nearly every island of the Malay 



