AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. 
205 
one of these lines of gunners, they seemed as intent on killing more as they 
were when I arrived. A man near the place where I was seated had killed 
sixty -three dozens. I calculated the number in the field at two hundred, 
and supposing each to have shot twenty dozen, forty-eight thousand Golden 
Plovers would have fallen that day. 
On inquiring if these passages were of frequent occurrence, I was told that 
six years before, such another had occurred immediately after two or three 
days of very warm weather, when they came up with a breeze from the 
north-east. Only some of the birds were fat, the greater number of those 
which I examined being very lean ; scarcely any had food in their stomach, 
and the eggs in the ovaries of the females were undeveloped. The next 
morning the markets were amply supplied with Plovers at a very low price. 
Charadrius marmoratus, Wagler, Syst. Avium. 
Golden Plover, Charadrius pluvialis, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 71. Winter. 
Charadrius pluvialis, Bonap. Syn., p. 297. 
Charadrius pluvialis, Golden Plover , Swains, and Rich. F.Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 623. 
American Golden Plover, Charadrius marmoratus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p.575. 
Adult, 10£, 22-f. 
Migrates southward in autumn and winter in vast flocks, from the northern 
regions, resting by the way, both in the interior and along the coast. Breeds 
on the Northern Barren Grounds, and islands of the Arctic Sea. 
Adult Male in spring. 
Bill shorter than the head, straight, subcylindrical. Upper mandible with 
the dorsal line straight and slightly sloping for two-thirds of its length, then 
bulging a little and curving to the tip, which is rather acute, the sides flat 
and sloping at the base, convex towards the end, where the edges are sharp 
and inclinate. Nasal groove extended along two-thirds of the mandible, 
filled with a bare membrane ; nostrils basal, linear, in the lower part of the 
membrane, open and pervious. Lower mandible with the angle long, nar- 
row, but rounded, the sides at the base sloping outwards and flat, the dorsal 
line ascending and slightly convex, the edges sharp and involute towards the 
narrow tip. 
Head of moderate size, oblong, rather compressed, the forehead rounded. 
Eyes large. Neck rather short. Body ovate, rather full. Wings long. 
F eet rather long, slender ; tibia bare for a considerable space ; tarsus rather 
compressed, covered all round with reticulated hexagonal scales ; toes slen- 
der ; the hind toe wanting ; third or middle toe longest, fourth considerably 
longer than the second, all scutellate above and marginate, the outer connect- 
ed with the middle toe by a membrane as far as the second joint ; claws 
Yol. Y. 29 
