130 NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



edge of a neighboring pool, perhaps picking up a scrap of food as it runs, and then it mounts on 

 wing again and comes careering about, evincing the liveliest distress at the invasion of its haunts. 

 When disturbed in the vicinity of its nest it has also a sharp peet, iceet, weet, very similar to the 

 wellknowQ note of the Spotted Sandpiper. Let the hunter go where he will on the marshy ground 

 and his ear is greeted by the same remonstrance. 



They are found along the course of the Lower Yukon during the summer season and breed 

 wherever found. When the young are able to take wing in July they leave the flats, to a great 

 extent, and frequent the seacoast, where they keep in small straggling parties searching for food 

 along the tide line. 



These birds arrive in the vicinity of Saint Michaels or the Yukon mouth about the middle of 

 May; rarely before this date. In autumn they move gradually to the southward, until by the 

 last of August tliey become rai'er, and during the first half of September all have gone with the 

 exception of an occasional straggler found along the sea-shore. Dall found them to arrive in the 

 vicinity of Nulato ou May 27, although it undoubtedly occurs earlier in the season than that. 

 Among the considerable number of this species in my series I find only a single individual with a 

 white throat-patch. 



H^MATOPUS BACHMANi Aud, Black Oyster-catcher. 



This bird is found abundantly at Sitka and Kadiak, and Dall found it a summer resident ou 

 tke entire Aleutian chain. It arrives in May on the western part of these islands. On one of the 

 Shumagin group (Range Island), June 23, 1872, lie found two nests. In both cases the eggs were 

 placed directly ui)on the gravel on the beach ; one conta'ined two ej^gs, and the other one. They 

 were all partly incubated. 



Their iris is rich orange, with the edge of the eyelid scarlet. The birds were extremely wary — 

 as also are their east-coast relatives — aud kept entirely out of gunshot. Their note was a pecidiar, 

 low whistle when disturbed; they have a habit of standing ou the beach, or rocks, a short distance 

 apart, and calling to one another. Like the eastern bird, their motions are stilted and odd. 



Its range is not known to extend beyond the Aleutian Islands to the north. From this point 

 south it is fsund on the coast and neighboring islands to some point in the tropics, where it meets 

 the species ater, found on the west coast of South America. In the Nova Acta Acad. Petropol. 

 1800 (p. 350), Sevastianoff gives a first account and comparison of this bird with the European Oyster- 

 catcher, but does not propose a name. Specimens of this bird were obtained in Alaska by Bill- 

 ings's Expedition (1785 et seq.). Pallas records it from the Kurile Islands, where he also cites the 

 Old World ostralwga as being found. 



Dendkagapus obscurus fuliginosus Eidgw. Sooty Grouse. 



During the explorations of the Western Union Telegraph Company, Bischotf secured seven of 

 these birds from the vicinity of Sitka, aud Hartlaub records it from Portage Bay, where its love 

 notes are said to be heard from April 1 to July. There is no doubt but that this bird occurs con- 

 siderably farther to the north and westward of Sitka along the coast region, and, perhaps, extends 

 across to the headwaters of the Kuskoquim, where the heavily- wooded character of the country 

 furnishes the proper ground for its presence. 



Dendragaptjs canadensis (Linn.). Canada Grouse. 



This handsome Grouse is found throughout the wooded portion of Alaska extending to the 

 shores of Bering Sea at the points where the spruce forests reach the vicinity of tide- water. It is 

 more numerous, however, in the interior, and along the upper portion of the Yukon. It is per- 

 manently resident wherever found. Mr. Dall records it as the least common of the Grouse found 

 in the vicinity of Nulato, where he observed it frequenting willow thickets, aud feeding exclusively 

 upon the buds of this bush. At Auvik, ou the Lower Yukon, it is rather common, aud inhabits 

 the mixed forests of spruce aud deciduous trees, whence it has the habit of coming out on the 



