KILLDEEE. 85 



St. Lawrence and out to sea. On the return up the Mississippi 

 Valley also they were abundant. For the ten years 1895-1904 

 the numbers reported have been so small that the species seemed in 

 imminent danger of extinction. During 1905 and 1906, however, 

 the species was reported from quite a number of localities, indicating 

 that at present the comparatively small number of individuals left 

 are holding their own. The future of the American golden plover is 

 in the hands of the sportsmen of the Mississippi Valley. During the 

 breeding season the birds are out of reach of danger from mankind; 

 through the winter their welfare is out of the control of the people of 

 the United States; but in spring during their two thousand mile 

 journey up the Mississippi Valley, for from six to eight weeks, great 

 numbers are slaughtered, and as a result they have diminished to a 

 small fraction of their former numbers. If the species is to hold its 

 own spring shooting in the Mississippi Valley must be largely cur- 

 tailed or entirely abolished. 



Pacific Golden Plover. Charadrius dominicus fulvus Gmel. 

 The principal summer home of the Pacific golden plover is in Asia, 

 where it breeds in northern Siberia east of the Yenisei River; it 

 breeds also on the western coast of Alaska from near Bering Strait 

 south to Bristol Bay. It winters on the Hawaiian Islands and in 

 China and India and south to New Zealand and Australia. Early 

 dates of arrival in Alaska are at Portage Bay, May 13, 1882 (Hart- 

 laub); Kadiak Island, May 13, 1868 (Bischoff); Atka Island, May 

 17, 1879 (Turner). The usual time of arrival at the mouth of the 

 Yukon is about the first of June, and the latest date in the fall is 

 October 12 (Nelson). 



Killdeer. Oxyechus vociferus (Linn.). 

 Breeding range. — The killdeer has one of the most extensive 

 breeding ranges of the American shorebirds. It ranges north in 

 summer to central Quebec (Merriam) , northern Ontario (Todd) , cen- 

 tral Keewatin (Preble), southern Mackenzie (Preble), and to about 

 latitude 53° in the interior of British Columbia. The killdeer was 

 seen at Fort Churchill, Keewatin, and at Fort Resolution, Mackenzie, 

 by parties of the Biological Survey, and these observations very 

 materially extend its previously known northern range. The 

 breeding range of the killdeer extends much farther south than that 

 of other northern breeding shorebirds. The species breeds not only 

 throughout the whole of the United States, but south to Cape St. 

 Lucas, Lower California (Xantus), and to Rio Sestin, Durango 

 (Miller). Killdeers occur in Newfoundland in the fall (Reeks), but 

 are not known to breed on that island. 



Winter range. — The winter range is much less extensive than the 

 summer. Though there are records of the presence of the species in 



