104 NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



was repeated, and the last of July or first of August I was certaiu to find numbers of them iu the 

 situations mentioned, whei'e earlier in the season not one was to be found. They always remained 

 until the middle of October, when the beaches became covered with ice and they were forced to seek 

 a milder climate. 



The first of October, as the first snow-storms begin, these birds desert the more exposed islets 

 and beaches for the inner bays and sandy beaches, where their habits are like those of other Sand- 

 pipers in similar situations. They are never shy, and a party may be fired into, again and again, by 

 following them along the shore. The natives of Norton Sound call them "shore," or " beach birds" 

 (Tsna-gul), and do not know their nesting ground, so it is safe to say — as confirmed by my own 

 observations — that this bird does not nest ou the Alaskan mainland north of the Yukon at least. 



On the Commander Islands it is a permanent resident. There, as elsewhere, it frequents 

 rugged beaches. The following notes on the breeding and other habits of this bird I quote from 

 Stejueger's excellent report on the birds of the Commander Islands : The last of March great 

 flocks of five hundred or more swarm along the shore line of these islands. About a month later 

 the flocks make up and are distributed over the islands from the shore to the high plateaus. At 

 this time, about the middle of April, they assume their bi-ight summer di'ess. It has, in common 

 with many other Sandpipers, the habit of uttering a melodious song while upon the wing, and 

 Stejneger saw one alight upon a tussock, and, "sitting there with puffed plumage and peudant 

 wings, it produced a loud bleating," very much like the "bleating " of QaUinmjo (jaUinago. The 

 first"*'eggs found on these islands were taken the middle of IMay, and chicks on the 17th of June. 



In its autumnal wanderings it extends all along the eastern shore of Bering Sea and even 

 north along the coast of the Arctic. Its winter range includes the Aleutian Islan ds and the 

 coast of Kadiak Island, with the mainland south to Sitka and probably fivrther. Its range on the 

 Asiatic coast is less known, but from its absence during the summer of 1 881 at various points ot 

 this coast, where I landed, from Plover Bay to East Cape, and around to west of Koli utchin Bay, 

 its breeding range is probably limited to the Kurile, and perhaps Bering, Islands and the adjacent 

 coast. On the east coast of Bering Sea these birds begin the fall moult the last of August or first 

 of September, and the ashy winter-dress becomes more and more marked un til it is completed the 

 first part of October. 



Description. — Iris, hazel. Feet, legs, and base of bill dark greenish-yellow ; the outer two. 

 thirds of bill black or very dark horn color. The feet and legs are light olive -yellow in some 

 instances. 



Adult in breeding plumage.— Yeathevs of crown black or blackish-brown, narrowly edged with 

 dull rusty. Feathers of dorsum and scapulars black, broadly edged about t he tip with rusty yel- 

 lowish or bufify, varying to bright deep ferruginous ; this latter color usually brightest at base of 

 tertials, but covering the entire dorsum in some cases. . The buffy shade is usually most marked 

 on the tertials and lower back. Rump and tail-coverts black ; middle tail-feathers very dark ; the 

 outer ones light grayish. Primaries dark brown. Coverts olive-brown, narrowly edged with 

 whitish. Secondaries mainly white. Sides of head marked by a dull whitish superciliary line 

 from bill and a broad plumbeous line from gape back along lower border of eye to neck. Throat 

 dingy white. Feathers of lower neck and upper breast with dark bases and a narrow shaft-line 

 of black through the broad white tip, giving a streaked appearance, which gradually changes on 

 the sides of neck to the rufous markings of the back. " On both sides of the breast, and frequently 

 across all the breast iu a uniform area, are two dull irregular black patches. The rest of under 

 surface is white, each feather with a well-marked black shaft-line. 



Winter plumage.— Entire head and neck uniform plumbeous, with a whitish throat area on 

 which the dark markings are limited to the tips of feathers. The centers of feathers on crown 

 and back, including tertial-coverts, have dark blackish-brown centers with a plumbeous ashy edg- 

 ing. Primaries, rump, and tail apparently a little darker than in breeding season. The wing- 

 coverts are much more broadly white-edged than in summer. Feathew of breast dark with white 

 and ashy edges, the dark frequently inclosing a subtermiual light area. The black-breast area of 

 summer is lacking, but the dark shaft-markings on the sides and flanks are ordinarily larger and 

 broader than in summer. 



