ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



121 



Ornithology," wroDgly applied the name given by Brehm to a North 

 American species, the bird called Actodromas fnscicoHis (Vieill.) in 

 current lists. He perpetuated his error in his Amer. Ornith. (1833), 

 Compar. List (1838), and Catal. Method. (1842). This bird, which 

 Schlegel in memory of the mistake called Trinrja bonapartei, is there- 

 fore known in synonymies as Tringa or Pelidna schinsii Bonap. {nee 

 Brehm),. in contradistinction to the true P. scMnzii of Europe. Proba- 

 bly biing unaware of Schlegel's name, Brehm in 1855 (iSTaumannia, p. 

 292) bestowed a new name on the form misnamed by Bonaparte as 

 schinzii, calling it Pelidna americana, and significantly adding in brack- 

 ets "Tringa Schiuzii JB/?." Brehra's P. americana, consequently, is only 

 a synonym of Tringa fuscicollis Vieill. 



Three years afterwards J. Cassin, in "The Birds of North America," 

 separated the American representative of the European Dunlin as 

 Tringa alpina var. americana which Coues, in his jMonograph of the 

 Tring^e (Proc. Acad. Philada., 1861), raised to spexiitic rank as Pelidna 

 americana (Cassin). From the explanation above it is evident, how- 

 ever, that this appellation is preoccupied, and another name is necessary. 

 Fortunately there is no need of a new one, for Dr. Coues (?. c.) indi- 

 cated P. pacifica, as a separable form which has not later been recog- 

 nized. I have myself examined his type (U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 9540), 

 and finding it in every essential a true P. amer'wtna Cass, {nee Beehm), 

 1 propose to revive pacifica as the name for the Red-backed Sandpiper. 

 Pelidna alpina pacifica is also a more fitting name, since it has been 

 shown to inhabit both the Asiatic and the American shores of the Pa- 

 cific Ocean. 



List of specimens collected. 



92791 

 927C2 

 89179 

 92793 



2100 

 2103 

 1105 

 1G90 



liOcality, 



Bering Island May 26, 1882 cf ad. 



do I May 29, 1882 | cf ad. 



do [ May 28, 3883 (c^) ad. 



do ! May 28,1883 (cDad. 



do JMay 29,1882 1 ? ad. 



do lOct. 22,18821 ? 



«im. fnm. 

 208 122 



192 

 (193) 

 (191) 

 210 

 201 



110 

 114 

 113 

 118 

 120 



vnvn,. 

 23 

 22 

 23 

 24 

 23 

 24 



No. 89040. — Ills dark brown. Bill and feet olive I lack. 



No. 92793. — Tip of middle claw reached 7™'" beyond the tip of tail, legs being stretched back- 

 wards, and the later reached beyond the tijis of folded wings for a similar distance. 



