ALASKA, 



185 



The following measurements of a number of adult specimens 

 will illustrate the size and shape, and, to a great extent, the 

 normal variations in dimension of the species: 



McaiiiinmcntH. 



"This is the only wader that breeds upon the Prybilov 

 Islands, with the marked exception of a stray couple now and 

 then of Thalaropus lujperhoreus. It makes its appearance early 

 in May, and repairs to the dry uplands and mossy hummocks, 

 where it breeds. The nest is formed by the bird's selection of 

 a particular mossy bunch, and there setting. It lays four 

 darkly-blotched pyriform eggs, and hatches within twenty days. 

 The young come from the shell in a thick yellowi.sh down, with 

 dark-brown markings en the head and back, getting the plum- 

 age of their parents and taking to wing as early as the 10th of 

 August 5 and at this 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 



species belongs to the same typo as the Kuot, (T. canutas,) but is much more 

 robust in size, the bill is longer, the tarsi are longer, and the toes more ro- 

 bust,' (this is a mistake;) 'finally, it differs in the very different coloration 

 of the plumage, notably in the breeding-season.'" * » # '' It seems to 

 me that the bird is in every respect a large dunlin, (J. cinchis,) which it re- 

 sembles much more nearly than it does canutus, not only in regard to the 

 structure of the bill and feet, but in the character of the breeding-plumage," 

 ».tc. Now, our T. piihcnemis bears a wonderful superficial resemblance to 

 an overgrown dunlin, but its affinities, as shown by the feathered iibia\ a)id 

 tarsus shorter than the middle toe, are entirely with T. maritimus. as already 

 said, and some plumages very closely resemble the extensively-whitened 

 winter-dress of the latter. 



