BRITISH BIRDS 



THE ASIATIC GOLDEN PLOVER. 



Ckaradrius dominicus, P. L. S. Miiller. 

 Plate 63. 



This species, also known as the Lesser Golden Plover and the Eastern Golden 

 Plover, is represented by two forms, only slightly differing from each other. One 

 inhabits in the breeding season Northern Asia, from the Yenesei to Bering Sea and 

 south to Mongolia, and is also found at that time in Alaska, while in winter it 

 migrates to China, Japan, Southern Asia, and the countries of the Pacific Ocean. 



The other, which is usually slightly larger than the Asiatic race, and has been 

 distinguished under the name of the American Golden Plover, breeds in the Arctic 

 parts of North America, and winters in the south of that continent. This bird, 

 including both the above-mentioned forms, has occurred about eight times in the 

 British Islands. The specimen shown in the plate, kindly lent to me for the pur- 

 pose by Lt. -Commander Millais, is of the Asiatic race, and was obtained at Loch 

 Stennis, the Orkneys, in November 1887. It is apparently a young bird in first 

 plumage. The Asiatic Golden Plover, which in summer has the colour in general 

 brighter and the black and white on the breast more richly marked than our bird, 

 may at all seasons be distinguished from the other by the smoke-grey axillaries, 

 which may be seen when the wing is extended. These in the common Golden 

 Plover are white. The present species is also a smaller bird. 



Miss Maud D. Haviland, who found the Asiatic Golden Plover breeding in 

 numbers by the Yenesei in Siberia in the summer of 19 14, says (Witherby's British 

 Birds, vol. ix. pp. 82-83), " I first saw a few birds at Dudinka, where they were 

 probably on migration, and afterwards the species was common all the way down 

 to Golchika. Each pair occupied perhaps two furlongs of tundra. I should think 

 that every acre of moss and lichen from the Yenesei to the Lena in summer is thus 

 parcelled out. Your progress across the tundra in July is heralded and attended by 

 a chorus of plaintive cries. Both birds meet you a quarter of a mile from the 

 nest, and never leave you until you are at the boundaries of their own territory, 

 and they can safely hand you over to their next neighbours for espionage. Covert, 

 of course, there is none — but it is needless to say more. The suspiciousness and 

 patience of the Golden Plover are the same all the world over ; and I will not dwell 

 upon them to those who themselves have no doubt walked vainly for half a day 

 about the bird's breeding grounds in this country, and listened to its maddening 

 but at the same time most musical protests." 



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