ORI^ITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 275 



1883.— Anihits sp. Stejneger, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1883, p. 71. 



1883.— ^H^/(«s japonicusij) RiDGW., Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1883, p. 95, {nee Temm. & 



SCHLEG.). 



im^.—Anihus stejnegcri RiDGW., Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1883, p. 95.— Id., ibid., p. 369. 

 1883.— Pipastes agilis Dybowski, Ball. Soc. Zool. France, 1883, p. 361 {nee Sykes, nee 

 SWINH. !). 



Anthus stejnegeri shares the fate of Anthus seehohmi. As the gentle- 

 man in honor of whom the latter name was given was compelled to re- 

 duce it to a synonym of Anthus gustavi, so will I have to reduce the 

 name given in honor of me to a synonym of the same species. Well, it 

 is a funeral, but it is for the benefit of all concerned, and therefore 

 we are not very sorry for it. But these and many other funerals could 

 have been avoided, if the first describers of a species had used such 

 terms for the colors they intended to indicate, as would enable 

 other people to recognize the bird from their description. It very 

 often happens that in a diagnosis the author says chestnut where he 

 ought to have used rusty, buff, or some similar term. Is it too much 

 to ask that a man who introduces a new name into science should know 

 the names of the colors ? As the earlier descriptions of this species are 

 more or less defective, and especially so the original description of 

 Swinhoe, I think it advisable to reprint here Mr. Eidgway's careful and 

 detailed description (Pr. TJ. S. Nat. Mus., 1883, p. 95), from specimens 

 collected by me on Bering Island. 



Adult, summer plumage : Above light raw-umber brown, very distinctly streaked 

 with black, these markings broadest on the back, the exterior feathers of which have 

 the inner webs chiefly dull whitish, producing, when the feathers lie in natural posi- 

 tion, a distinct stripe on each side of the interscapular region; scapulars much less 

 distinctly streaked with dusky, and without light edgings; middle wing coverts 

 dusky, broadly and very distinctly streaked with brownish white ; greater coverts 

 more narrowly tipped with brownish white or very pale buff, and edged with light 

 brown ; remiges dusky, edged with light brown ; middle rectrices similar, but others 

 dusky, the outer pair mostly dull brownish white, or pale dull buff, with a dull 

 brownish dusky space along edge of basal half of inner web ; nest feather with the 

 outer web pale dull brownish buff, and the inner web with the terminal portion and 

 stripe along shaft, nearly to the base, of the same color. Lower parts buff'y white, 

 the whole jugulum yellowish buff, of varying intensity, and distinctly, though not 

 always sharply, streaked with dull black; superciliary stripe and side of head gen- 

 erally pale buff", the auriculars more brownish, especially along upper margin, where 

 sometimes streaked with dusky ; a small dusky spot immediately in front of eye, and 

 throat sometimes bordered along each side by an interrui)ted series of narrow black- 

 ish streaks (these usually, however, nearly or quite obsolete); sides and flanks 

 steeaked with blackish, and longer lower tail-coverts also sometimes streaked. First, 

 second, and third quills longest, and nearly equal (first, however, usually longest), 

 fourth decidedly (.15 of an inch or more) shorter. 



The most characteristic feature of this bird, and especially strongly 

 marked in the living bird, the feathers of which are not out of their proper 



