CHARADRIID^E — THE PLOVERS — SQUATAROLA. 
137 
the Arctic coast, July 4. The nest contained four eggs, and was composed of a little 
withered grass, placed in a depression on the side or face of a very gentle eminence. 
Both parents were seen, and the male shot. They were at first mistaken for the 
Golden Plover ; but their note and general appearance soon undeceived him. This 
was the first of the species he had ever seen during his sojourn in the country. 
While it may exist on the Arctic coast and in the Barren Grounds, he is quite 
confident that he never met with it before. The eggs in this instance contained 
partially developed embryos. On the following day, July 5, 1864, another nest, 
containing four eggs also, in the same stage of development, was secured. 
A third nest, with four eggs, was discovered the following night, and a snare was 
set to secure the parent. The female was taken, but before it was secured, a Snowy 
Owl devoured the bird and destroyed the eggs. 
In regard to the breeding of this Plover, Ave learn from Middendorff that he 
observed none of this species on the Boganida earlier than the 25th of May. By the 
26th of June the females were sitting there on their nests, which had been formed 
by collecting together dried leaves and grasses, and in which Avere four eggs, Avhicli 
he compares in shape with the eggs of the Lapwing and the Dotterel ( Charadrius 
morinellus). He gives their average length at 2.10 inches, and their average largest 
diameter 1.40 inches. They differed very considerably in size, the largest being 2.18 
inches in length, and the smallest only 1.87 inches. Nor does the color afford any 
distinctive mark. The ground-color is sometimes yelloAA r isli gray and sometimes 
broAvnish yelloAv, the dark-brown spots being like those of the Ch. pluvialis. Midden- 
dorff also found this bird breeding on the Byrranga Mountains, in latitude 74°. 
Mr. Dresser describes one of the eggs obtained by Middendorff as measuring 2.07 
by 1.40 inches, with a ground-color of a dull clay-brown, and bearing markings 
distributed over the surface, but collecting together at the larger end, blackish brown 
in color, and irregular in shape. There were also a few underlying purplish shell- 
markings. 
Eggs of this species collected by Mr. MacEarlane in an island in Franklin’s Bay, 
on the Arctic coast, in July, 1864, and in 1865, and numbered 11193, 11196, and 
11199, S. I., exhibit certain general resemblances to the egg of the more common 
Golden Plover ( Ch. virginicus). They have, however, certain constant differences 
Avhich do not readily admit of exact description. These three sets, two of four and 
one of three eggs, differ from the average egg of the virginicus in the more nearly 
equal distribution of the spots over the whole egg. In tAvo of these sets the ground 
color is of a light greenish drab; in the other the ground is a light rufous drab, 
without any mixture of green. The spots are of a dark shade of umber or bistre, 
and the darkness of the shade is quite uniform, and never intensified, as in the eggs 
of the virginicus. They are strongly pyriform in shape, and vary in length from 
1.90 inches to 2.30, and in breadth from 1.40 to 1.47 inches. They are longer and 
broader than the virginicus, and their breadth is also proportionally greater. 
Messrs. Harvie-BroAvn and Seebohm, in the summer of 1875, found the Gray Plover 
breeding on the tundras of the Petcliora Ewer, in Northern Russia in Europe, where 
they procured a rich series of eggs described as intermediate in color betAveen those 
of the Golden Plover and the LapAving, and subject to variations, some being much 
browner, and others more olive, but none so green as the eggs of the Lapwing, 
nor so orange as those of the Plover. The blotching is in every respect the same, 
the underlying spots equally indistinct, and the surface spots large, especially at the 
greater end, but occasionally small and scattered. In size they vary from 1.90 by 
1.35 to 2.20 by 1.40 inches. 
VOL. i. — 18 
