SURF BIRD. 95 



Idaho and either Oregon or Nevada, but in these three States it is 

 unknown, and seems not to be recorded from Utah. So the birds 

 that visit California are separated from the nearest known habitat 

 of the species by a zone about 600 miles wide and containing two 

 ranges of high mountains. 



Spring migration. — The mountain plover is among the early 

 migrant shorebirds. It arrived on the average at Beloit, Colo., 

 March 26, earliest March 23, 1890 (Hoskins); Loveland, Colo., March 

 18, 1887 (Smith). 



Eggs have been taken at Fort Lyon, Colo., June 9, 1886 (Thorne) ; 

 San Luis Valley, Colo., June 10,1873 (Henshaw); young just hatched 

 at Terry, Mont., June 15, 1898 (Cameron); young at Colby, Kans., 

 June 28, 1893 (Fisher); eggs near North Platte, Nebr., July 8, 1859 

 (Suckley). 



Fall migration. — The first was seen at Corpus Christi, Tex., July 25, 

 1887 (Sennett); Pecos City, Tex., August 1, 1903 (Ligon). Quite 

 a party of them was seen at James Island, Florida, July 20 to August 1, 

 1901 (Williams), but they were probably only stragglers. The last 

 one noted in 1890 at Beloit, Colo., was on October 15 (Hoskins). 

 Surf Bird. Aphriza virgata (Gmel.). 



The breeding range of the surf bird is unknown, for the bird has 

 never been encountered in its summer home. It goes north along 

 the Pacific coast of the United States in spring, and has been traced 

 all along the coast to the Kowak River, Alaska, where it arrived 

 May 29, 1899 (Grinnell). Then it disappears and is not seen again 

 until on its way south the latter part of July. The natives say it 

 breeds on the mountains a few miles back from the coast. 



The surf bird winters in Chile, as far south as the Strait of Magellan 

 (Sharpe), and is known in migration on the coasts of Peru (Tschudi), 

 Ecuador (Hartert), Mexico (Xantus), and Lower California (Kaed- 

 ing). It arrived at Newport, Oreg., April 25, 1895; April 27, 1897; 

 May 3, 1899; April 27, 1900; average of the four years April 28 

 (Bretherton) . Agreeing well with this date is its appearance at San 

 Geronimo Island, Lower California, March 15, 1897 (Kaeding) ; and 

 the date already given of May 29 at Kowak River, Alaska (Grinnell). 

 An extra early date is March 8, 1859, at Puget Sound, Washington 

 (Kennerly). The latest recorded date at the Strait of Magellan is 

 March 3, 1879 (Sharpe) ; the species was common at Abreojos Point, 

 Lower California, April 19, 1897 (Kaeding) ; a belated bird was taken 

 on the Farallon Islands, Calif., June 3, 1903 (Kaeding). Several 

 appeared in fall migration at Sitka, Alaska, July 21 (Grinnell) ; New- 

 port, Oreg., July 24, 1900 (Bretherton) ; Monterey Bay, Calif., August 

 3, 1894 (Loomis) ; Vaqueria, Ecuador, September 16, 1901 (Hartert). 

 The species has been noted at St. Michael, Alaska, until the first of 

 October (Nelson), and at Berkeley, Calif., as late as October 24, 1888 

 (Palmer). 



