68 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



MELANETTA FUSCA (LINN.) IN ALASKA. 

 By ROBERT KIDOWAlf. 



Among the birds collected by Mr. C. L. McKay, U. S. Signal observer 

 at Bristol Bay, Alaska, is a fine adult male of the European Velvet 

 Scoter, obtained at Alloknagik Lake, July 20, 1882 (Nat. Mus. No. 

 92149, collector's No. 104). 



This species may be readily distinguished from its American repre- 

 sentative, M. velvetina (Cass.) Baird, by the longer culmeu, the distance 

 from the tip of the bill to the frontal feathers being greater than from 

 the same point to the most anterior loral feathers ; the relative meas- 

 urements being reversed in M. velvetina. This character holds good in 

 both sexes, and also in young birds. In the adult male of M. fusca the 

 side of the base of the maxilla (near the rictus) is much more swollen 

 than in M. velvetina, but at the same time the base of the culmen is 

 decidedly less elevated. The colors of the bill are much the same in the 

 two species, but M. fusca has a distinct black line running on each side 

 of the nail, connecting the upper and lateral black areas. 



This is the second known occurrence of M. fusca in America, the first 

 record being that of Dr. Eeinhardt in Vid. Medd. Nat. For. Kjobenhavn, 

 1869, p. 1, where a specimen from Southern Greenland is reported. It 

 is true that Mr. Nelson, in his ^' Birds of Bering Sea and the Arctic 

 Ocean" (Arctic cruise of the revenue steamer Corwin in 1881, published 

 in 1883, p. 102), gives M. fusca as the Alaskan species, but he, in com- 

 mon with some other writers, does not distinguish the two species. All 

 Mr. Nelson's specimens which I have had the opportunity of examining 

 in this connection, are 71/. velvetina, as are all other Alaskan examples 

 that have come under my notice, except the one above referred to. if. 

 fusca is the species of Eastern Asia, and may, therefore, like some other 

 PaUearctic birds, straggle more or less frequently to the American 

 side. 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SNOW BUNTING FROM ALASKA. 



By ROBERT RIDOWAY. 



Plectrophenax hyperboreus Kidgw. McKay^a Snow Bunting. 



SuBSP. CH. — Adult $ in spring (No. 78551, Saint Michael's, Alaska, 

 April, 1879, E. W. Nelson) : Entirely piue white, except the terminal 

 portion of the five outer primaries, which are chiefly black, for the 

 space of about 1.40 inches from the tip of the longest quill. Tail pure 

 white, the middle rectrices with a very small blackish spot near the end 

 of the inner web (almost obsolete on one feather). Bill dull brownish, 



