Page:Auk Volume 37-1920.djvu/177

 Vo1 ' 1920 CYI1 ] Chapman, Proposed Neiv Race of the Killdeer. 105 DESCRIPTION OF A PROPOSED NEW RACE OF THE KILLDEER FROM THE COAST OF PERU. BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. Collections received during 1919, by the American Museum from its Peruvian representative, Mr. Harry Watkins, contain fourteen specimens of a Killdeer which breeds on the coast of Peru, at least from Lima to near the Ecuadorian boundary. Killdeer have been before recorded from Peru, 1 from Colombia, 2 Ecuador, 3 Paraguay, 3 and Chile, 3 but it has been assumed that these birds were winter visitants from North America. It seems, however, not improbable that they were resident birds, as, beyond question, are our specimens from Peru. These represent adults at the beginning and the end of the post-nuptial molt, and young in fresh juvenal plumage and in the down. This discovery places the Killdeer, distributionally, in the group of Plover to which Octhodromiis wilsonius and Mgialitis collaris 4 belong and suggests that our northern Killdeer is derived from the South American form. Of Mgialitis collaris, Ridgway remarks that South American specimens " much more often (in fact usually) have the cinnamon on head and neck present and also more pro- nounced," 5 and it is in the greater extent of the rusty margins of the upperparts that the Peruvian Killdeer may be distinguished from the North American and West Indian forms. This difference is sufficiently pronounced and, so far as our material goes, constant to warrant the recognition of the Peruvian bird as a well-marked race for which I propose the name 'Scl. & Salv., P. Z. S., 1S6S, p. 176 (Tambo Valley, southwestern Peru); Taczanowski, Ibid., 1S79. p. 244 (Pacasmayo). 2 Scl. & Salv., P. Z. S., 1S79, p. 547 (Medellin). s Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., XXIV, pp. 247, 742. 4 In default of material to consider the conclusions in regard to genera reached by Ridg- way (Bull. U. S. N. M., 50, Pt. VIII), I follow here the nomenclature of the British Museum Catalogue. 5 Bull. U. S. N. M., 50, Pt. VIII, p. 141.