112 ]S"ATUEAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



Tringa fereuginea Briiuu. Curlew Saudpipei. 



At roint Barrow, on Juue 0, 1883, Mr. Murdoch had the good fortuue to take a fine male of 

 this species iu full breediug dress. It was' iu company with a flock of Tringa maculata, and 

 its capture is the only record we possess of its occurrence iu Alaska, or, in fact, anywhere else 

 on the western coast of America. 



Genus EURYNOKBYNCHUS Nilsson. 



This remarkable Sandiiiper has the following generic characters: 



Bill expanded laterally, at the tip, into a broad, flat obcordate or rounded expanse, with a slight 

 cariuatiou along the median line on the upper surface ; bill slightly grooved, with the nostrils close 

 to the basal end. The hind toe is minute, and there is but a very slight trace of a web between 

 the outer and middle toes. The other toes are free. 



EuRYNORiiYXCHUs PYGJLTiUS (Liuu.). Spoou-biU Sandpiper. 



The presence of this remarkable little Sandpiper in the list of birds of Alaska is due to the 

 capture of a specimen at Choris Peninsula, during the summer of 1849, by the captain of the 

 British ship Plover. This specimen was for a long time in the collection of Sir John Barrow, but 

 -wfien presented by him to the Univer.sity Museum at Oxford it came under the notice of Mr. Hart- 

 ing, who records, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society (1871, p. 110), the capture of this bird, 

 and at the same time a Mongolian Plover, at the locality mentioned. 



Choris Peninsula Is a sandy spit which extends out into th(^ head of Kotzebue Sound, and is 

 covered with pools of water which are formed by the overflowing of the sea-waves, or the gather- 

 ing of the rain, and thus forms an excellent point for birds of this character. This place would 

 well repay further examination during the summer season, as also would the strip of low, marshy 

 and sandy lagoons dotting the coast from Cape Prince of Wales northeast," around the Alaskan 

 shore, toward Kotzebue Sound, as it must be a favorite resort for many waders and waterfowl. 

 Doubtless .several Siberian species occur thore in addition to the two just named. 



Although this is one of the rarest of the Saudpipers, it has a wide distribution over i^ortions of 

 Asia. Mr. Harting doubts the occurrence of this bird anywhere in Europe, and especially in 

 France, and iu a footnote to one of his articles, he quotes M. Jules Yerreaux as having recently 

 informed him that no specimens of this bird ever existed in the Paris Museum, and the specimen 

 which had been referred to by various authors under the name of E. griseiis is nothing else but 

 Tringa snbarciiata with the hind toes cut off and the bill remodeled with the aid of some warm 

 water. Mr. Harting concludes his article upon this bird by stating that nothing is known of its 

 nesting habits, and refers to the unexplored regions of Northeastern Asia as the place likely to 

 afford light upon this form, as well as upon other little-known species. 



Up to October, 1869, only twenty-four specimens of this bird were known, and of these twenty- 

 three were from Southern India, the single other specimen being from Kotzebue Sound, Alaska. 

 In India these birds frequent the muddy flats at the mouths of rivers, sand-bars, and the sea-shore, 

 where, with the various species of Tringa, they always find an abundant harvest of food deposited 

 by the receding tide. 



At Plover Bay, on the Siberian shore, I first saw this bird, when on a visit there with the Corwin 

 in 1881. The bird was standing on the border of a small, gravelly-edged pool on a spit at the 

 entrance of the harbor. It had evidently fed to its satisfaction, and stood pensively at the water's 

 edge when I came along. While watching it before shooting, I saw it dabble its bill in the water, 

 and then draw in its neck, paying no further attention to its surroundings, although I was close 

 by. This was in the same locality where, in 1880, Dr. Bean secured a specimen in autumn plu- 

 mage. During our visits to this place, on several succeeding occasions, I searched the spot care- 

 fully again and again, but not another individual of this rare bird was seen. Swinhoe reports a 

 specimen taken at Hakodadi, Japan, .showing that these birds migrate south along the eastern 

 coast of Asia. Nordenskjold records it at Tapkan, on the northern shore of Siberia, near Bering 



