tRRn.l 
(~!tt ATmOTTU xrr' r> 
•*» T^iitrhf nf Killdeer Plover. 2^7 
AN UNUSUAL FLIGHT OF KILLDEER PLOVER 
(sEGIA LITIS VO CITE R A) ALONG 
THE NEW ENGLAND COAST. 
BY DR. ARTHUR P. CHADBOURNE. 
A very unusual flight of Killdeer Plover occurred along the 
New England coast in the latter part of November, 1888, and I 
have succeeded in collecting some data that may help to show 
from whence the birds came, and why they were found in certain 
places while only a short distance away they were absent or 
found in small numbers. 
My data would have been far from satisfactory had it not been 
for the kindness of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chief of the Division of 
Economic Ornithology of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
who sent circulars to all the light-house keepers on the Atlan- 
tic coast, asking about the occurrence of Killdeer Plover in 
the fall of 1888, and to these reports I am largely indebted for 
what I have been able to find out about the flight in question. 
Where there seems to have been any doubt of the identity of the 
birds noted, the report has been excluded from the following list, 
and this has necessarily left out some places where the birds ap- 
peared in small numbers. 
* “Le/. Gairdneri d’Audubon a exactement, d’apres ce dernier auteur, les dimen 
sions du pubescens, qui est plus grand que mon espece nouvelle.” — MALHERBE, Mo- 
nographic des Picidees etc., Vol. I, p. 126. 
New England, but for years it has been very rare. The birds still 
breeds in Rhode Island, however, for Mr. Charles H. Lawton of 
Newport writes that “the Killdeer is quite plenty with us, but has 
