226 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



especially in the caves arouud Uualaschka, wherefrom I Lave received 

 numerous specimens." 



So far as I know, this is the only detailed and definite record of this 

 species inhabiting any locality within the limits of tne Iforth American 

 fauna. In view of the experience of later explorers, however, the state- 

 ment must be regarded as erroneous. It has not been found in [Jna- 

 laschka, by v. Kittlitz, Dall, Turner, Nelson, nor in fact by any of the 

 many expeditions which have stopped there. The museum of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences in St. Petereburg never received it from 

 the Ilussian possessions in America (since Pallas's days, at least), nor is 

 it found from there in the Leiden Museum, or any of the other European 

 or American museums which have received collections from that re- 

 gion. The Ilussian collector, Wossnessenski, Avho paid special attention 

 to the water-birds, who collecte<l successfully for many years on the 

 Kuriles, Kamtschatka, the Aleutian Islands, and the coast of north- 

 western America, and whose discoveries and collections have added so 

 much to our knowledge of the Alcidtv of those regions, found this spe- 

 cies ''only on the Asiatic shores of the Pacific Ocean, e. c , on the shores 

 of the Okhotsk Sea, and near the Kurile Islands " (Brandt, Mel., Biol., 

 VII, 18G9, p. 206). 



As to Pallas's positive testimony, contrary to these negative evi^lences, 

 it may remarked that there is no question of an observation made by 

 Pallas himself; nor does he give the name of any trustworthy observer, 

 as is his usual practice. It seems as if the statement has been based 

 upon specimens said to have come from Unalaschka, in which case 

 there has been a mistake made in the locality. Several similar mis- 

 takes are found in his Zoographia, among others Leucosticfe arctoa, from 

 the same locality as C. carho^ Actitis kypoleucos from Kodiak, Hcvmato- 

 pus nigcr, from the Kuriles [?J, and there is no more reason for including 

 C. carbo among North American birds than Actitis hypoleiicos. It seems 

 as if the localities of a whole collection received at St. Petersburg had 

 become mixed up, probably one of Merck's, who collected in all these 

 places. 



As remarked above, Pallas's statement is the only detailed and defi- 

 nite record of the occurrence of the species within our continent. To 

 my knowledge the only statement besides which is not based upon Pal- 

 las's account is to be found in the second edition of Dr. E. Coues's " Key 

 to North American Birds" (1884), M-here, on p. 815, the habitat of C. carbo 

 is given as "N. Pacific, in higher latitudes ; British Columbia to Japan" 

 (italics mine). A diligent search through the literature has not re- 

 vealed to me the observation or record of specimen obtained upon which 

 Dr. Coues's statement is founded. I may have overlooked the refer- 

 ence, however, and it is of the greatest importance that Dr. Cones 

 should make public his authority. It may be remarked that the state- 

 'ment is not found in the first edition (1872), nor in the same author's 

 " Monograph of the Alcidae " (Proc. Acad. Philada., 1808). 



