474 PROCEEDINGS OF THE XITTOXAL MVSEVM. 



the fact that his own bird was charactorizod by its groat siz(>. while 

 Vigois's iiicusui-iMiicnts showcHl a nim'v siiiall specimoii. 



This lariic race was cknirly understood ])y Professor Baird when, in 

 1864, h(^ wrote his admirable Review of American Birds, but though 

 he speaks of these large specimens as having '' reached North America 

 by the Greenland route," it almost seems as if he regarded the few 

 obtained in Labrador and Canada as Avinter migrants returning regu- 

 larly to Greenland to breed, though he indicates the possibilitv that 

 they might '' nest in Newfoundland and Labrador.'' 



Shortly after, Mr. W. H. Dall discovered the species breeding in 

 Alaska, but these birds failed to bear out the characters of the alleged 

 American race, which then fell into innocuous desuetude, so far as 

 American ornithologists were concerned. The last one to examine 

 into the matter was Mr. W. E. Nelson, who says^ that: 



The specimens secured by Mr. Dall were transinitted to Mr. Tristram to be com- 

 pared "vvith European specimens, with the result of determininj^ that birds secured 

 in Lapland at the same season were identical with the Alaskan examples. I have 

 made a hasty comparison of my skins with those in the National ]Museum from 

 Greenland and several Old World localities, and tind no differences other than 

 individual. 



The fact that large and small specimens were found both in Europe 

 and in America seemed to close the incident forever. It appeared 

 settled that Saxicola (vnanthe was a homogeneous species, and conse- 

 quently there was at that time no real objection to the conclusion that 

 the Alaskan l)irds possibly returned to their winter quarters in Africa 

 by way of Greenland. No attention was then paid to the suggestion 

 made by me in my Results of Ornithological Explorations in the 

 Commander Islands and in Kamchatka (1885) (pp. 349-351), that the 

 Saxicola a^nanthe breeding in the Tchuktchi Peninsula and Alaska 

 migrate southwestward along the Stanovoi Mountains to Udski, and 

 thence farther through the interior of Asia. I did not elaborate the 

 route of the Saxicola then, partly because the material at hand was as 

 yet insufficient, partly because it was not one of the species collected 

 by me in Kamchatka. 



The existence in Europe of a large form had long been suspected. 

 Thus Degland as early as 1849 '^ noted the existence of the large race, 

 as follows: 



I have ol)tained at Dunkerque, in the month of May, specimens whicli are much 

 larger than those whicli breed on our plains [Lille], and which differ, moreover, in 

 their coloration. Their tarsus is longer, while their body nearly equals that of Sa-xi- 

 cola leucura; the u])per surface is less gray, tinged with reddish; the underside of a 

 beautiful rufous, especially on the breast, neck, and sides, and the wing feathers are 

 of a less deep black. 



^ Keport on Natural History Collections made in Alaska, 1887, p. 221. 

 -Ornith. Europ., J, p. 484. 



