THE AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. 535 



Distribution. — British Isles. — The winter-visitors and passage- 

 migrants (mid -Aug. to mid-No v. and mid-March to end May), are 

 probably of this form. Weather -movements both of arrival and 

 departure Nov.-Feb. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Northern Europe (most probably north 

 to Bear Island, where one specimen obtained) , Faeroes and Iceland, 

 occasional Greenland and west Siberia ; in winter south to north 

 Africa, Azores, Madeira, and Canary Islands, and in Asia as far as 

 Aden and Sind. (In Africa in Somaliland, statements of occur- 

 rences in Gabun and South Africa require confirmation.) 



CHARADRIUS DOMINICUS 



380. Charadrius dominicus dominicus Mull. — THE AMERICAN 

 GOLDEN PLOVER. 



Charadrius Dominicus P. L. S. Miiller, Natursystem, Suppl., p. 116 

 (1776 — Santo Domingo. Ex Brisson). 



Charadrius dominicus P.L.S. Muller, Saunders, p. 549 (part) ; C. fulvus 

 Gm., Yarrell. in, p. 276 (in text). 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter. — Fore-head cream, 

 feathers with dusky centres ; crown dark sepia, feathers faintly 

 tipped golden ; nape ash-brown ; mantle and scapulars fulvous- 

 brown, feathers with slight golden margins ; back, rump and upper 

 tail-coverts sepia, feathers fringed golden ; eye-stripe white 

 streaked fulvous ; ear-coverts dusky ; sides of neck and cheeks 

 white, streaked dusky ; chin and throat white, latter streaked 

 fulvous ; breast and flanks pale fulvous edged white ; belly, vent 

 and under tail-coverts white, some of latter shaded fulvous ; axil- 

 laries and under wing-coverts fulvous-grey ; tail sepia with indica- 

 tions of darker brown barring and notched and tipped white ; 

 primaries, their coverts and secondaries as in C. apricarius but 

 innermost secondaries fulvous-brown shaded with bars of darker 

 brown and faintly tipped white ; greater and median coverts fulvous - 

 brown with narrow dusky-white tips ; lesser coverts sepia tipped 

 golden. This plumage is acquired by complete moult Aug. to Feb., 

 birds with primaries in quill occur in Dec, Jan., and even Feb., and 

 moult of remiges appears to take place in late autumn and winter. 

 Adult male. Summer. — The body-feathers (not all scapulars 

 or all feathers of back and rump), occasionally an odd tail-feather 

 and exceptionally whole tail, innermost secondaries and coverts, 

 some median and lesser coverts are moulted March to June, but 

 not rest of wings or tail-feathers. Fore-head white ; crown black, 

 feathers notched golden ; upper -parts black, notched and broadly 

 barred and tipped golden ; broad white superciliary bands terminate 

 in small white patches on sides of breast ; ear-coverts, cheeks, 

 sides of neck and remaining under -parts black ; under tail-coverts 

 black barred or marked white, lower ones whitish ; axillaries and 

 under wing-coverts as winter ; tail-feathers as winter but occasion- 

 ally one or two with ill-defined golden bars ; wing as winter but 



