BIRDS. 127 



Youug birds iu their tirst plumage are seen the tirst half of July. They have a white frontal 

 bar and the pectoral collar is brown like the crown and back. The feathers of crown and back 

 are narrowly edged with pale bulf, and a narrow collar of blackish borders th& front of the brown 

 of back, separating it from the white ring about the neck. The bill is entirely black and the feet 

 dingy fleshy yellow. 



The downy young are pretty little objects, with the crown and entire back asbybrown, with 

 a faint butfy shade in places, and the entire surface irregularly maculated with black. The colors 

 of the crown and back are separated by a white collar, which joins the uniform white of the lower 

 surface on the sides of the neck. 



JEgialitis mongola. (Pall.) Mongolian Plover. 



This handsome addition to the Plovers of North America was made by the captain of the ship 

 Plover, during his visit to Kotzebue Sound, in the summer of 1849, when he secured two specimens 

 upon Choris Peninsula.. It is a common summer resident on the Commander Islands, where it 

 arrives during the first half of May and leaves the last of September. Their eggs were taken 

 there by Stejenger the first of June and the young about the middle of July. A nest found on 

 June 4 contained three eggs. It was in a hollow between the stems of four Angelica archangelica 

 and lined with dry fragments of leaves and stems of the same plant. The eggs are desci'ibed by 

 Stejneger as being larger and of a deeper ground color than eggs of JE. semipalmata, and the spots 

 average rather smaller than on eggs of the latter. 



The Choris Peninsula specimens alluded to above were presented some years since to the Oxford 

 Museum, among other birds, by Sir John Barrow, and the only published account of them which I 

 have been able to find is that by Mr. Harting in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of Loudon 

 for 1871 (p. 110). As the bird is now first recognized as a member of the American fauna, I append a 

 description of it taken from a beautiful male recently received by the National Museum from Yoka- 

 hama, Japan. This bird, an adult male (Eo. 85779, National Museum collection), taken April 

 28, 1881, is marked as follows: Crown, ashy-brown on the posterior half, and much mingled with 

 dull buff; forehead black, the black reaching back of and bordei-ing the orbit in front. A 

 concealed, badly-defined line of white is found upon the edge of the black frontal band just above 

 the lores, and extends around the frontal region as an indistinct light line, which thus divides the 

 frontal band into an upper and lower portion. This light or white area is very indistinct, being 

 merely a spot just over the base of the culmeu, but is distinctly marked on each side in front of 

 the orbit. Commencing at the base of the u;)per mandible at each side and extending back, 

 including cheek and ear-coverts, is a broad black bar. Chin and throat clear bright white. This 

 area covers the sides of the neck and entire base of lower mandible ; entire breast occupied by 

 a broad band of rich buft', approaching chestnut. This area extends irregularly along the sides 

 from the flanks and, reaching over the back of the neck, forms a collar of a duller shade of the same 

 color. In the perfect plumage this color extends up over the entire crown. Entire back and ter- 

 tials, scapulars, and middle of rump pale olive-brown with a wash of grayish; feathers of the 

 sides of the rump and upper tail-coverts bordered and edged with white; tail ashy-brown, becom- 

 ing lighter towards the sides, where the outer feather is white ; quills dark brown, and the shaft 

 of the outer primary white. The rest of the primary shafts are dark brown with a median white 

 or pale stripe. A white wing-bar is produced by the edgings of the cov^erts ; secondaries and some 

 of the single primaries bordered with white areas.of varying extent; abdomen white, much duller 

 than the clear bright white of the chin and throat. 



Dimensions: Wing, 5.15; tail, 2; tarsus, 1.18 ; culmen, .60. 



For peculiarities of plumage, discussion of synonomy, range, &c., of this species, the reader 

 is referred to Mr. Harting's paper upon the little-known Limicoke, in the Ibis for 1870. 



Aprhiza virgata (Gmel.). Surf-bird. 



During the exploration of the Western Union Telegraph Company in Alaska, four specimens 

 of this widely-spread bird were taken in the vicinity of Sitka by Bischoff. North of this there is 

 no record except that of the birds secured by myself iu the vicinity of Saint Michaels. It is a 



