PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. G9 



the tip dusky ; legs and feet deep black. Wing 4.65, tail 3.10, culmen 

 .45, tarsus .90, middle toe .60. 



Adult S in winter (No. 92090, Nusbagak, Alaska, December 10, 1882, 

 C L. McKay) : Like the spriug j^lumage as described above, but pileum 

 stronglj' tinged with rusty brown, the auriculars washed with a paler 

 shade of the same, and jugulum with a very faintly marked pale rusty 

 collar, more distinct (but still faint) on each side ; lower back and rump 

 also faintly washed with pale rusty. Black spots near ends of inner 

 webs of middle rectrices more distinct, and black on ends of primaries 

 rather more extended, that on inner web of outer quill reaching about 

 1.70 from the tip. Bill wax-yellow, with dusky tip to the maxilla. 

 Wing 4.60, tail 3.15, culmen .40, tarsus .95, middle toe .60. 



Adult 9 in spring (No. 78556, U.S. Nat. Mus., Saint Michael's, Alaska, 

 April, 1879, E. W. Nelson) : General color white, the pileum and au- 

 riculars tinged with rusty, the nape and back faintly washed with pale 

 bufl'-yellowish, and back very narrowly streaked with dusky, but these 

 narrow streaks rapidly widening toward the roots of the feathers so as to 

 form the predominating color of the concealed portion ; scapulars more 

 strongly tinged with ochraceous, and with still broader concealed dusky 

 acuminate spots, but without distinct streaks on the surface. Tertials 

 with the central part of the exposed portion blackish, the very broad 

 marginal part light dull ochraceous, becoming nearly white at the tips 

 of the feathers ; aluhe dull black, bordered with white ; primary cov- 

 erts similar, but greater portion of inner webs white ; longer primaries 

 chiefly dusky grayish, distinctly bordered with white and with basal 

 half or more of inner webs wholly white ; on the shorter primaries this 

 dusky rapidly decreasing in extent until on the innermost quill there is 

 a mere trace near the tip of the outer web. Four middle rectrices 

 brownish dusky, bordered with white j rest of the tail white, but all 

 the feathers with more or less of a dusky streak near end of the outer 

 web. Bill brownish wax-yellow, the culmen dusky ; feet brownish 

 black. Wing 4.25, tail 2.90, culmen .45, tarsus .85, middle toe .60. 



Adult 5 in winter (No. 92091, Nushagak, Alaska, November 16, 1882; 

 C. L. McKay) : Similar to the spring plumage, as described above, but 

 upper parts much more strongly washed with rusty, this deepest on the 

 pileum and auriculars, but also pervading the nai^e, whole back, and 

 scapulars, and, but less uniformly, the rump ; an interrupted or broken 

 jugular collar of rusty touches or cloudings; broad marj>ins of the 

 tertials deep cinnamon. Bill paler and purer wax-yellow, without black 

 on culmen ; feet deep black. Wing 4.25, tail 2.90, culmen .40, tarsus 

 .87, middle toe .58. 



Of this remarkably fine and easily recognized species I have examined 

 altogether seven specimens, three adult males and four females, all of 

 them obtained in Alaska in winter and early spring. The summer home 

 of this bird is probably the unknown region to the north of the Artie 

 mainland, since at the extreme northern point of Alaska only the true 



