56 PROCEEDINGS OF Tin: \ ITIONAL WUSEl \i. vol.38. 



lowlands between the town and the lake. All three were shot. On 

 arriving at the ship one of the men told me he had never seen ptarmi- 

 gan so common as about the summit of the mountains at the left of 

 the harbor entrance. As he had had considerable experience with 

 ptarmigan in seldom visited portions of Alaska, and was a reliable 

 man, I arranged to visil the locality the next day with him as a guide 

 in order to obtain a series of this little known species. We start cm I 

 early and readied the place a little before noon, but, although the 

 droppings of the birds were extremely abundant everywhere, we saw 

 none of the birds themselves. Just as we were preparing to leave, 

 after searching the whole district thoroughly, a fine cock came flying 

 over from one of the neighboring peaks and was promptly secured. 

 On our way back to the shore we saw one other which was chased 

 for over a mile but without success. The only male specimen taken 

 is darker than any in the National Museum collection, being sooty 

 black with but few t races of rusty vermiculations. 



LAGOPUS RIDGWAYI Stejneger. 

 RIDGWAY'S PTARMIGAN. KUROPATKA. 



Although we searched the mountains about the town on Copper 

 Island carefully, we found none of these birds and only a very few 

 of their droppings; :il Bering Island we also failed to find them, our 

 search, however, being limited to the lowlands behind the town. 

 The birds are, nevertheless, common in certain parts of both islands. 



Order COLUMByE. 

 Family COLUMBIDjE. 



COLUMBA FASCIATA Say. 

 BAND-TAILED PIGEON. 



A small flock of Band-tailed Pigeons was seen at Union Bay, 

 Vancouver Island, but, as the bird- were very shy, specimens could 

 not be secured. 



Order RAPTORES. 



Suborder FALCONES. 



Family l'A I .< ( >\ 1 1 )M. 



Subfamily nr'I'Ki >X IX .}■:. 



MILVUS ATER MELANOTIS (Temminck and Schlegel). 



SIBERIAN BLACK KITE. 



This species was \er\ common about all the Japanese towns we 

 visited, but I did not notice it at the Oki [slands, Sad., [sland, nor 

 Matsushima. It was particularly abundant at Hakodate, where I 

 counted twenty-tWO -ailing about together over some object of 



