140 
PRiECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL.®. 
adult) : Under parts dull ashy, spotted with brownish on the neck and breast, frequently more 
or less mixed with black ; many spots of the upper parts dull ashy white ; other spots, especially 
on the rump, golden yellow. 
Total length, about 9.50 inches; wing, 7.00; tail, 2.50; culmen, .92; tarsus, 1.70; middle 
toe, .90. 
Specimens vary in the relative amount of the black and golden on the upper parts, in the 
width of the white on the forehead, and other details of coloration. All the specimens in summer 
plumage from Alaska, including St! Michael’s, Popoff Island, Kadiak, and Sitka, are apparently 
referable to the American form ; at least we cannot distinguish them from other North Ameri- 
can examples in the same plumage, while their measurements are decidedly those of dominicus. 
Twenty-six specimens in all have been examined, these representing almost as many localities, 
from the Arctic coast to Costa Rica. Careful measurements of this series afford the follow- 
ing results: — Eleven specimens in summer plumage : Wing, 6.80-7.35, average, 7.11; culmen 
.85-1.00, average, .91 ; tarsus, 1.60-1.85, average, 1.73; middle toe, .85-1.05, average, .91. Six 
adults in changing plumage : Wing, 6.90-7.30, average, 7.12 ; culmen, .90-1.00, average, .96 ; 
tarsus, 1.65-1.82, average, 1.70 ; middle toe, .80-95, average, .90. Seven specimens in winter 
plumage {mostly young ) : Wing, 6.80-7.20, average, 7.03 ; culmen, .80-1.00, average, .91 ; tarsus, 
1.55-1.75, average, 1.66 ; middle toe, .85-95, average, .87. Average of the whole series: Wing, 
7.09 ; culmen, .91 ; tarsus, 1.70 ; middle toe, .90. 
The Green, or Golden, Plover of North America is, within the limits of the United 
States, a migratory species exclusively, and is confined, to a large extent, in its flights, 
to the vicinity of the coast. Straggling parties, in the fall, pass south through the 
interior ; but these are chiefly birds in an immature plumage. Their migrations 
in the spring begin, in the more southern States, early in March, and continue 
through that and the following month. Their movement at this season is more rapid 
than in the fall, and they make few and short pauses, their flights being made more 
frequently by interior routes. Audubon, when in New Orleans, March 16, 1821, wit- 
nessed an extraordinary flight of these birds near the Lake of St. John. They passed 
in many thousands in a northeasterly direction. He estimated the number of Plovers 
destroyed by the sportsmen on that day at forty-eight thousand. These flights took 
place only just after there had been several very warm days, followed by a strong 
northeast wind. The birds were not generally in good condition. 
The late Dr. Lincecum, of Washington Co., Texas, states in his manuscript notes 
that all through April the Golden Plover is passing northward throughout Texas. Only 
very few stop on the prairie and remain all summer, and these do not breed there. 
They do not, when they are passing north, travel in groups, but fly widely scattered, 
chirping as they go, and seeming to try to keep in hearing of each other. They 
appear to travel as much by night as during the day, since their peculiar call, 
