The American Golden Plover 



(hypothetical) Pacific Golden Plover {Pluvialis dominions fulvus), which breeds in 

 western Alaska and which has been taken as far south as Comox, Vancouver Island 

 (Brooks). 



Authorities. — Gambel (Pluvialis virginiaca), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.. ser. 

 2,i., 1849, p. 220 (coast of Calif.); Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. xii., 

 i860, p. 229 (San Francisco); Cooke, U. S. Dept. Agric, Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 35, 1910, 

 p. 80 (Santa Cruz, p. 84; distr. and migr.) ; ibid., U. S. Dept. Agric, Bull. no. 185, 191 5, 

 p. 16, fig. 4, map (migr.); Grinnell, Bryant and Storer, Game Birds Calif., 1918, p. 458 

 (desc, occurrence, habits). 



THE RECORDED appear- 

 ances of this species are so few, only- 

 four or five in number, that the 

 bird is scarcely entitled to a rating 

 above "accidental" in California. 

 Indeed the word "accidental," never 

 quite accurate in the estimation of 

 any natural occurrence, most nearly 

 describes the wide deviation from 

 custom of those golden waifs which 

 straggle down the Pacific Coast 

 instead of keeping to the eastern 

 route. 



Alleged Californian occurrences 

 are worthless without specimens. 

 The plumage of immature Black- 

 bellied Plovers seen during fall mi- 

 grations sometimes exhibits a fulvous, 

 or tawny, character which would 

 deceive the very elect. The speck- 

 ling of P. dominions is really "von 

 goldt," but like other appearances 

 of the precious metal its determina- 

 tion requires the acid test. 



The migration route of the 

 American Golden Plover is in many 

 respects the most remarkable of any 

 species in the New World. Dis- 

 tributed in summer along the Arctic 

 Coast of America from Hudson Bay 

 to Bering Strait, the birds at the 

 close of the breeding season move 



NOT A BIRD IX SIGHT 



1297 



