EASTERN GOLDEN PLOVER. 
and females kept near to the nest. The female being distinguished by having 
the black of the belly intermixed with white feathers. On the 2nd of August 
they began to collect on the Taimyr for the return flight ; by the 9th they 
had all gone. 
“ On the Boganida (71°) they arrived on the 24th May. They remained 
in summer plumage until the beginning of August, but changed their 
plumage in the first half of that month. The last bird was seen on 
August the 31st. 
“ They nest in the moors round Udskoj-Ostrog, where a female in 
summer plumage was shot on the 31st of May.” 
Radde {Beisen Suden von Ost-Sibirien, p. 322, 1863) shot a specimen 
on the Onon on September 27th, 1856, in full winter-plumage, also one on 
September 3rd in the Bureja Mountains in the same plumage. 
The bird figured and described was collected at Botany Bay, New South 
Wales, in December, 1895. 
The forms of Golden Plover are worthy of much study in connection with 
the relationship of those to the Grey Plover. The latter species is circumpolar 
and subspecies are difficult to differentiate, whereas the Golden Plover has 
become differentiated as two species, and of one species two subspecies are 
recognisable. The Grey Plover has black axillaries, while the Western 
European Golden Plover has pure white axillaries ; the Eastern or Asiatic 
and the American Golden Plovers have smoky axillaries. The Eastern Grey 
Plover seems to be larger than the Western form, while the Asiatic and 
American Golden Plovers are considerably smaller than the European species ; 
the Asiatic form being sHghtly smaller than the American one. The present 
bird was one of the first to be treated to a trinomial name, but we now 
regard it as specifically distinct from Pluvialis apricarius, while the American 
and Asiatic forms are considered subspecifically distinct as forms of Pluvialis 
dominicus. 
In the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum subspecies were not 
recognised, so that both were lumped under the name C. dominicus ; a long 
note was given, however, acknowledging that the American bird was usually 
larger. This is now so generally accepted (c/. A.O.U. Checklist, 3rd ed., 
p. 127, 1910, and Hand-List British Birds, p. 169, 1912), that no discussion is 
necessary. The nomination of the forms is without any complications. 
Two figures of this Plover are included in the Wathng Drawings, and 
they are so different that there can be no other conclusion but that they were 
made by different artists. My own investigations into the drawings known 
as the Watling Drawings lead me to befieve that these include paintings made 
by at least two, if not more, artists. AU those signed by Thos. Watling are 
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