Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis Deignan

Kentish Plover

Charadrius alexandrinus nihonensis Deignan, Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 31, 1941, p. 106. (Type locality, Aomori, Hondo.)

Charadrius cantianus Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868, pp. 117, 118 (Pelew); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 89 (Pelew); Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, p. 31 (Palau).

Aegialitis cantianus Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 64 (Pelew); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 62 (Pelew).

Aegialitis alexandrinus dealbatus Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 45 (Pelew).

Charadrius alexandrinus dealbatus Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 194 (Palau); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 217 (Palau); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 37 (Palau).

Geographic range.—Breeds in Japan and possibly on adjacent parts of the Asiatic mainland. Winters south to Malaya. In Micronesia: Palau Islands—exact locality unknown.

Remarks.—The Kentish Plover is known from a single record obtained by Semper in the Palau Islands. It is tentatively assigned to C. a. nihonensis, which breeds directly north of the Palau Islands on Japan. C. a. dealbatus (Swinhoe) breeds more to the west on the Asiatic mainland and adjacent islands south of Japan. Additional specimens are needed before the subspecific status of migrants to Micronesia can be accurately determined.