200 ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



new species they are wantiDg, as well in the first and not fully grown 

 feathers, as in those of the more advanced season ; besides, the two 

 birds could never be confounded on account of the different ground 

 color, this being decidedly grayish in L. muta. 



There is one point, however, in which L. ridgicayi seems to differ from 

 all the known forms of both inula and ri(pestris, and that is, that in 

 the perfect summer plumage of the male the feathers of the abdo- 

 men and the tibiae are of a dull, smoky black, a coloration I have not 

 been able to find in any of the numerous specimens of the other species 

 examined by me ; nor have I been able to find it mentioned in any de- 

 scription, all of which expressly state that the abdomen is always white. 



As might be expected, the female of L. ridgwayi differs only very 

 little in color from the females of its congeners. In the presestival 

 plumage the light bars are, i^erhaps, a little more distant, and the 

 yellow color a shade richer and more brownish orange than in rupestris. 



A small chick taken on Bering Island, August 5, 1882, shows a great 

 difference from one of corresponding age from Quickjock, in Norwegian 

 Finmarken (U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 33550, July 25, 1862), as it is rich brown- 

 ish orange with much broader barring and fewer white spots than the 

 rather dull-colored specimen from Norway. A very striking difference 

 also prevails in the coloring of the wing-feathers, which in the pullus of 

 ridgicayi are distinctly and broadly barred with orange and blackish, 

 especially the inner ones, while these feathers in mtita are grayish brown, 

 with minute yellowish gray vermiculations and scarcely any indication 

 of cross-bars. On the other hand, the Norwegian specimen is distinctly 

 barred over the whole breast, while in the Bering Islander the more 

 distant dark cross-bars are confined to the sides of the breast only. 



The general size does not differ from its nearest allies, but the bill is 

 considerably longer and stouter, in the latter respect intermediate be- 

 tween L. alba and the members of the Attagen group, and, as to the bill, 

 probably approaching L. islandorum (Faber). 



All taken into consideration, I regard L. ridgwayi as a well-defined 

 species; in fact, as the best circumscribed form in the whole group, L. 

 Jiyperborea (SuND.) not excepted. 



$ad.— U. S. ^'at. Mu8. No. 89059, L. Stejneger No. 1167. Bering Island, June 6, 1882. 

 Most of the nasal, mental, and malar feathers, b.east, tiauks, abdomen, under tail- 

 coverts, primaries, secondaries, and most of the wing-coverts, a few fot'.thers on the 

 lower back, and uropygiuni, and also the two longest upper tail-coverts, still white, the 

 shafts of the remiges being almost wholly white. The remainder of the plumage is 

 of a dull blackiBh brown, with ferrugineous brown transverse bars round the neck, 

 the feathers of the lower back and uropygiuoi finely mottled with the same color; a 



