SCOLOPACID^ — THE SNIPE FAMILY — ARQUATELLA. 223 



blackish ; nape light fulvous, mixecl with pale grayish, narrowly and indistinctly streaked. An 

 indistinct loral stripe (this sometimes obsolete), and auviculars, pale grayish fulvous, finely and 

 indistinctly streaked ; rest of the head, including a superciliary stripe, and entire lower jJarts, 

 white, the jugulum usually (in highest plumage) washed with ochraceous, and (always?) streaked 

 with dusky ; breast blotched with dusky, the blotches usually coalesced into an irregular large 

 patch, sometimes covering tlie whole breast ; flanks and under tail-coverts marked sparsely with 

 very narrow shaft-streaks of dusky. Inner border of the wing spotted with light grayish, and 

 under primary coverts very pale ash-gray. Adult, vmiter plumage : Wings, rump, tail-coverts, tail, 

 and posterior lower parts as in the summer plumage. Remaining upper parts continuous light ashy 

 plumbeous (many shades lighter than in A. maritima), the feathers of the back and the scapulars 

 darker centrally, and with a very faint purplish gloss in cei'tain lights. Head light grayish, darker 

 and almost unbroken on the pileum, lighter and streaked with white elsewhere, the throat white, 

 and but sparsely streaked. Jugulum and breast white, irregularly marked with pale ash-gray. 



Young, first plumage : Above, very similar to the summer dress of the adult, but the wing-coverts 

 widely bordered with pale buft'; head and neck also very similarly colored. Jugulum pale buff, 

 distinctly marked with short streaks and sagittate marks of dusky gray. Downy Young : Above, 

 bright tawny fulvous, iri'egularly marbled with black, the back and rump bespangled with downy, 

 dot-like flecks of yellowish white ; the nape nearly uniform liglit fulvous grayish ; forehead pale 

 buff", with a very narrow medial streak of black, reaching nearly to the bill, and extending pos- 

 teriorly into the fulvous of the crown and occiput, Avhich is irregularly marbled, longitudinally, 

 with black ; a narrow black loral streak reaching about half way to the eye, with a still narrower 

 rictal streak. 



Total length, about 9.50 inches ; wing, 5.00-5.40 ; culmen, 1.15-1.45 ; tarsu.s, .95-1.00 ; middle 

 toe, .85-98. 



Although, at first sight, this Sandpiper seems very distinct from A. maritima and A. Couesi, 

 especially the latter, the apparent difterences become greatly reduced upon the careful examination 

 of a large series of specimens. The dimensions, while averaging considerably greater (except as 

 regards the feet), are yet found to inosculate witb those of that species, while the difl'erence in 

 plumage, as compared with A. Couesi, proves to be solely one of intensity of colors — the lighter 

 tints prevailing in ptilocnemis, the darker ones in Couesi. The exact correspondence of pattern of 

 coloration between the two extends to every stage of plumage, even including the downy chick. 

 We therefore, all things considered, look upon the present bird as being merely a local insular race 

 of a species of which A. Couesi represents the resident form of the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian 

 Chain, and from which A. maritima is perhaps not specifically distinct. 



For what little we kiiow^ of the habits of this newly discovered species we are 

 indebted to Mr. Henry W. Elliott, who found a feAV breeding on the Prybilof Islands. 

 In his brief account of its manner of life he states that it was the only Wader that 

 he found breeding on these islands, with the marked exception, now and then, of 

 a stray pair of Lohijjes hyperhoreus. It is said to make its appearance early in 

 May, and to rej)air to the dry uplands and mossy hummocks, where it breeds. Its 

 nest is simply a cavity in a bunch of moss, in which the bird deposits its four darkly 

 blotched pyriform eggs, hatching them out within twenty days. 



The young come from the shell clothed in a thick yellowish down, Avith dark-brown 

 markings on the head and back, but taking on the plumage of their parents, and 

 being able to fly as early as the 10th of August ; and at that season old and young 

 flock together for the first time, and confine themselves to the sand-beaches and surf- 

 margins about the islands for a few weeks, when they take flight, leaving the islands 

 from about the 1st to the oth of September, and disappearing until the opening of 

 the new season. 



Mr. Elliott describes this bird as a most devoted and fearless parent, and states 

 that he has known it to flutter in feigned distress around by the hour, uttering a low 

 piping note when its nest was too nearly approached. It also makes a sound exactly 



