AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. 205 



one of these lines of gunners, they seemed as intent on killing more as they 

 were when I arrived. A man near the place where I was seated had killed 

 sixty -three dozens. I calculated the number in the field at two hundred, 

 and supposing each to have shot twenty dozen, forty-eight thousand Golden 

 Plovers would have fallen that day. 



On inquiring if these passages were of frequent occurrence, I was told that 

 six years before, such another had occurred immediately after two or three 

 days of very warm weather, when they came up with a breeze from the 

 north-east. Only some of the birds were fat, the greater number of those 

 which I examined being very lean; scarcely any had food in their stomach, 

 and the eggs in the ovaries of the females were undeveloped. The next 

 morning the markets were amply supplied with Plovers at a very low price. 



Charadrius marmoratds, Wagler, Syst. Avium. 



Golden Plover, Charadrius pluvialis, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 71. Winter. 



Charadrics pluvialis, Bonap. Syn. p. 297. 



Charadrids pluvialis, Golden Plover, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 623. 



American Golden Plover, Charadrius marmoratus , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 575. 



Adult, 10|, 22§. 



Migrates southward in autumn and winter in vast flocks, from the northern 

 regions, resting by the way, both in the interior and along the coast. Breeds 

 on the Northern Barren Grounds, and islands of the Arctic Sea. 



Adult Male in spring. 



Bill shorter than the head, straight, subcylindrical. Upper mandible with 

 the dorsal line straight and slightly sloping for two-thirds of its length, then 

 bulging a little and curving to the tip, which is rather acute, the sides flat 

 and sloping at the base, convex towards the end, where the edges are sharp 

 and inclinate. Nasal groove extended along two-thirds of the mandible, fill- 

 ed with a bare membrane; nostrils basal, linear, in the lower part of the 

 membrane, open and pervious. Lower mandible with the angle long, nar- 

 row, but rounded, the sides at the base sloping outwards and flat, the dorsal 

 line ascending and slightly convex, the edges sharp and involute towards the 

 narrow tip. 



Head of moderate size, oblong, rather compressed, the forehead rounded. 

 Eyes large. Neck rather short. Body ovate, rather full. Wings long. 

 Feet rather long, slender; tibia bare for a considerable space; tarsus rather 

 compressed, covered all round with reticulated hexagonal scales; toes slen- 

 der; the hind toe wanting; third or middle toe longest, fourth considerably 

 longer than the second, all scutellate above and marginate, the outer connect- 

 ed with the middle toe by a membrane as far as the second joint; claws 



Vol. V. 29 



