BIRDS. ]07 



reindeer tracks, and amoug tbese the SLarp-tailed Snipe were seen seelfiug their food. They were 

 very unsu.spicious, and allowed us to pass close to them, or circled close about us. From their 

 movements, and other circumstances, I judged that this district formed part of their breedinrr 

 grounds, whence they reach the neighboring coast of Alaska in fall. 



. They usually make their first appearance ou the shore of Norton Sound the last of August 

 and lu a few days become very common. They sometimes remain up to the 12th of October^and 

 I have seen them searching for food along the tide-line when the ground was covered with 2 

 inches of snow. When feeding along the edges of the tide-creeks they may almost be knocked 

 over with a paddle, and when a flock is fired into it returns again and again. Its exact ranog is 

 ^still undetermined, but it is known to cover the east coast of Asia and adjacent islands 



The 1st of September, 1880, Gapt. C. L. Hooper, of the United States steamer Corwin, took 

 a single specimen within the Arctic Circle at Hotham Inlet, Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, making the 

 farthest northern record yet known, and on the 9th of September, the same season, Dr T H 

 Beau took a second specimen at Port Clarence, Bering Straits, and these, with the lar-e number 

 of specimens taken at Saint Michaels by the writer, complete the American history of this bird 

 up to the present time. 



Description of fall specimens. -Ivis hazel ; bill black at tip, ciiaugiug to dull greenish-yellow or 

 dirty horn color on basal third of lower mandible. The basal portion of the upper mandible liobter 

 than outer part and dull greenish-yellow in some specimens. Feet and tarsus greenish-yeHow 

 rather dull. Twenty specimens measured in the flesh ranged from 8^ to Oi inches in length by IG 

 to 18 inches in extent of wing. "" " 



The general pattern of coloration in this bir.l is very much like that of T. mucuht,, but 

 acuminata may be distinguished at a glance by the rich bufi' and rufous shading and maikinos 

 The feathers of the crown have broad black shaft-lines with borders of bright rusty On tiie 

 back of the neck the black shaftlines persist, but are bordered with dull rustv fulvous brown 

 Ou the back, scapulars, and tertials the black central part of feathers are proportionately lar-er" 

 and the edgings are lighter colored than on crown. The edges of dorsal feathers are rusty ml' 

 dull, and shaded with butfy, and the scapulars and a portion of the tertials are tipped with white 

 The edgings of scapulars and tertials are a bright dark rusty red, approaching the shade of the 

 crown, but lighter. The rump, upper tail-coverts, and inner tail-feathers are blackLsh-brown 

 edged with rusty red, shading through fulvous to white on the outer tail-feather. Wing-coverts 

 pale-brown, heavily bordered with pale fulvous brown and yellowish-white. Primaries dark-brown 

 Chin and upper throat occupied by an area of dingy white. Extending across the throat, inst 

 below this area is a heavily bufi'shaded collar extending over the entire breast. The dark shaft 

 hues of feathers ou the sides of the neck extend across the throat below in a series of fine pencil- 

 mgs, which never extend down over the breast, as in maculata, nor are they so heavy as the mark- 

 ings ou the breast of the latter bird. A dull buffy or yellowish brown wash extends along the 

 sides and tinges all the lower surface. There is considerable variation in the intensity of the bri<.ht 

 rusty-red edgings ou the crown and back, but the color does not approximate the dingy brown- 

 ish or bufly yellow of maculata. There is a distinct whitish superciliary stripe finely penciled with 

 black, ami the dingy white of sides of head and cheeka is thickly peucded bv fine dark shaft lines 

 ilje breeding plumage of this bird difters from its autumnal dress. 



An adult male in the National Museum collection obtained at Sydney, Australia, November 10 

 18.1, by J. E. Harting, diflers much from fall birds from Alaska, as the following description will 

 show: Feathers of the crown with a dull black shaft-line occupying half the feather and reachino- 

 the tip. Along each side of this is a broad border of dull rusty red. The entire back of neck, 

 dorsum, s. apulais, tertials, and wingcoverts have blackish or dark-brown centers, each feather 

 broadly boi.K.n.d with ashy-brown, producing a pattern and coloration which maybe almost dupli- 

 cated m dullcolored breeding females of maculata, the principal diflerence being the larger 

 size of the dark centers to feathers on the nape and the lighter color of the ashy edging in acumhiatu. 

 As m the fall specimens, the pectoral baud is much narrower than in maculata and in the adult male 

 consists ot a pale dingy or bufty brown shade, with a few scattered dark shaft-lines mainly on each 

 side of the neck from the base of bill to the breast, the side of head and neck thus apneariuff 

 very similar to that of maculata. 



