ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



List of specimens colhcted. 



111 



IN'o. 92782. — Bill brownisli gray, blackish at tip. Feet gray, strongly tinged with yellowish olive. 

 Kot fat. 



No. 89072.— Iris dark brown. Bill blackish brown at tip, olive gray at base, lower roandible more 

 j-ellowish. Feet light olive gray, more bluish on the joints, more yellowish in front of tar.susand toes. 



No. 89071. — In the cro}) remains of a Liimbricus, and in the stojpach stones and remains of a Helix 

 shell. 



The common Snipe is tolerably common on Bering Island, and breeds 

 in all suitable places, low swampy tundras, both on the extensive north- 

 ern low lauds and in the broader valleys of the southern part. In 18S3 

 they were not observed before the 10th of May, but were at that time 

 exceptionally numerous, being evidently migrating and prevented from 

 lauding in Kamtschatka on account of the enormous amount of snow 

 covering the whole country down to the water's edge at that time. 



The "bleating" sound of the Bering Island Snipe is identical with 

 that of the European bird, being surprisingly like the bleating of a goat. 

 On clear sunny days, between 10 and 12 o'clock in the forenoon, in the 

 early i^art of the summer, this bleating could be heard almost anywhere 

 in the swam.ps surrounding the village, so I had splendid opportunities 

 for observing the birds during their singular performances. Very often 

 the Snipe would rise so high in the air as to become almost invisible to 

 the unaided eye, but still the strange sound rang vigorously down to the 

 observer. Not only this power of the sound, but even more so the nat- 

 ure of the tune itself convinced me that it originates from the throat 

 and not in any way either from the tail or the wing-feathers, as sug- 

 gested by many European writers. It is true that the wings are in a 

 state of very rapid vibration during the oblique descent when the note 

 is uttered, but this circumstance does not testify only in favor of the 

 theory of the sound being produced by the wing, as the vibration most 

 conclusively accounts for the quivering throat-sound. Anybody stretch- 



