GOLDEN PLOVER. 83 



Nebraska, and Saskatchewan, and apparently is absent in spring 

 from the whole region west of the Rocky Mountains. 



Eggs were collected on the lower Anderson River, Mackenzie, 

 June 24, 1863, June 22, 1864, and June 16, 1865 (MacFarlane) ; at 

 Point Barrow, Alaska, June 22, 1882, and June 23, 1883 (Murdoch). 



Fall migration. — The old birds start south in July, and those that 

 are to make the flight from Nova Scotia to the Lesser Antilles occupy 

 about a month in the trip from the breeding grounds to the southern 

 coast of Nova Scotia. If fair weather prevails, the flocks of golden 

 plover pass by the New England coast far out at sea, but severe 

 storms are frequent at this season, and the birds are often driven to 

 land. The average for twenty-eight years of the date of arrival of 

 these storm-driven migrants at Nantucket, Mass., is August 25, 

 earliest August 12, 1898 (Mackay); a still earlier date is August 7, 

 1852, at Plymouth, Mass, (Browne). Five times in these twenty- 

 eight years birds were seen before August 20 (Mackay). The rule 

 on Long Island is to expect the plover with the first storm occurring 

 after August 28 (Lawrence). The first flocks are noted in the Ber- 

 mudas during the last ten days of August (Reid), and about the same 

 time the species arrives in the Lesser Antilles (Lawrence) and even on 

 the coast of British Guiana (Quelch). A few golden plover reach 

 Argentina the last week in August (Sclater and Hudson) and the 

 species has been taken in Bolivia in August (Allen), but these early 

 couriers are exceptional, and the main flocks arrive in September. 



On the west side of Baffin Bay in 1820 the last was seen September 

 3 (Parry) ; in Nova Scotia the species sometimes remains until 

 October (McKinlay). The average date of the last one seen at 

 Nantucket, Mass., for ten years previous to 1890 is October 2, 

 latest October 22, 1878 (Mackay); for the years since 1890 the 

 average date of the last seen is September 23 (Mackay). Near New- 

 port, R. I., a market hunter shot 386 golden plover during 1867 to 

 1874; the dates ranged from August 14, 1868, to October 24, 1874 

 (Sturtevant). On Long Island the dates of the earliest and latest 

 recorded observations of the species are August 15 and November 10 

 (Chapman). In the Bermudas and the Lesser Antilles most of the 

 birds leave in October, though some stragglers may be noted in 

 November. 



In the interior of New England the golden plover is rare in fall, 

 though at times it is quite common on Lake Champlain. Throughout 

 New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey it is usually very rare, but 

 in 1880 and in several other years it has been common in those States. 

 It has been seen at Erie, Pa., on dates ranging from August 20, 1896, 

 to November 18, 1900 (Todd). South of New Jersey on the Atlantic 

 coast, also in the Bahamas, the golden plover is almost unknown, 

 and it is not common anywhere in the Greater Antilles west of St. 

 Croix. 



