222 PR.ECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



rust}' fulvous, irregularly mottk-d with black, the back, wings, and rump ornamented by yellowish- 

 while downy Hecks or papilkc ; head above deep fulvous In-own, with a longitudinal stripe of 

 velvety black from the forehead to the occiput, where confluent with a cross band of the same, the 

 lores with two nearly parallel longitudinal streaks of black ; there are also other, rather indefinite, 

 l)lack markings, chiefly on the superciliary and occipital regions. Lower parts white, becoming 

 distinctly fulvous laterally. 



Wing, 4.50-5.15 (-4.8(5) inches ; culmen, .98-1.25 (1.13) ; tarsits, .88-1.00 (.95) • middle toe, 

 .78-.90 (.86). (Extreme and average measurements of 14 adults.) 



IIab. Aleutian Islands and coast of Alaska, north to St. Michael's; west to Commander 

 Islands. 



The present species' is closely allied to Arquatella maritima, Bruxx., and can 

 with difficnlty be distinguished in its winter plumage. A close comparison, however, 

 sliows that in this livery A. Couesl has decidedly less of the purple gloss to the dorsal 

 region, where tlie phimbeous borders to the feathers are botli broader and paler ; the 

 foreneck is also invariably squamated or streaked with white, and not uniformly 

 mouse-gray, as in maritim((. It is still more nearly related to A. ptilocnemis, Coues, 

 of the Prybilof Islands, but averages much smaller, and is always very much darker- 

 colored in every stage of plumage. The three are not only strictly congeneric, but 

 are very probably the descendants of one original stock ; but, since no interinediate 

 specimens have been observed in a large series of each kind, they may be considered 

 as having passed the " varietal stage," so that we may treat them as distinct species. 

 Both Mr. Harting and Dr. Coues were wrong in referring A. jjtilocnemis to the same 

 group as Pelidna aljnna, which bears only a superficial resemblance in coloration, the 

 details of form being quite different. 



While I have been unable to find any name which can be applied to this species, 

 it appears that Pallas refers to it in his description of Trlnga arquatella, in " Zoog. 

 Eosso-Asiat." II. p. 190, since he says that specimens of his species from the Kurile 

 Islands are marked with rusty yellow, as in the bird under consideration : " Corpus 

 supra plumis fuscis, margine pallidis (m Curilica ave ferrugirieo-luteis) . . . pectore 

 cinerescens {In curilica var. lutescetis).'' All Alaskan references to Tringa maritima 

 of course apply to the present species. 



Arquatella ptilocnemis. 



THE PRYBILOF SANDPIPER. 



Tringa anssirosfris, "Temm. & Schlep." Dall, Am. Kat. VIII. 1873, 635 (St. Paul's I. Alaska). — 

 Coues, in Elliott's Alaska, 1873 (not paged) ; ed. 1875, 182 ; Check List, 1873, no. 426 bis. 



Tringa ptilocnemis, Coues, in ElUott's Alaska, 1873 (not paged) ; ed. 1875, 182, footnote ; Birds N. 

 W. 1874, 491. 



Arquatella 2Mlocnr mis, Rinow. Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, V. July, 1880, 163 ; Nom. N. Am. B. 1882, 

 no. 532. — Coues, Cheek List, 2a ed. 1882, no. 622. 



Tringa gracilis, Hartinc, P. Z. S. Apr. 1874, 242 (Prybilof Island.s). 



Black-breasted Sa'nclpiper, Coues, 1. c. 



Hab. Prybilof Islands, Alaska. 



Sp. Char. Similar to A . maritima, hut larger, and much lighter colored. Adult, breeding- 

 plumage : Back and scapulars light clay-color, or ochraceous, the centre of each feather black, the 

 tips of many of them narrowly whitish; rump and upper tail-coverts dark slate, the feathers in- 

 distinctly tipi)ed with plumljeous-gray. Wings plumbeous-gray, the coverts bordered with grayish 

 white, the greater coverts widely tipped with pure white ; several (three or four) of the inner 

 secondaries (not tertials) wlioUy pure white ; primaries slate color, with white shafts, the hnier 

 ones distinctly edged with white toward the base. Pileum light fulvous, widely streaked with 



