630 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMICOL^. 



crown, back, and scapulars broadly edged with rusty-ochraceous, or bright cinnamon, the 

 central field of each feather nearly black, much darker than wings or rump, some of the scap- 

 ulars and interscapulars tipped with white in some specimens. Lesser coverts narrowly, 

 greater coverts broadly, bordered terminally with white ; greater coverts broadly tipped with 

 white, forming a conspicuous cross-bar ; several inner secondaries chiefly w^hite ; the others, 

 also the inner primaries, narrowly skirted and tipped with white. Rump, upper tail-coverts, 

 ■ and middle tail-feathers, uniform fuliginous dusky, the other rectrices paler, or dull cin- 

 ereous. A conspicuous long whitish superciliary stripe, reaching to nape, and confluent 

 with whitish of under side of head, thus posteriorly bounding a large sooty-brown auricular 

 area; anterior portion of lores, and forehead dull smoky -grayish; neck, jugulum, and breast, 

 dirty whitish, sometimes soiled with dingy bufi^, and clouded or spotted with dull slate, sooty- 

 plumbeous, or dusky-blackish, this sometimes forming a large patch on each side of breast. 

 Other under parts pure white, the sides with a chain of slaty spots and streaks, the crissum 

 streaked wnth dusky ; lining of wing pure white. Bill and feet brownish-black in the dried 

 skin ; iris brown. Winter plumage : Above, soft smoky-plumbeous, the scapulars and inter- 

 scapulars glossy purplish-dusky centrally, the plumbeous borders of the feathers causing a 

 squamous appearance ; head and neck uniform plumbeous, excepting the throat and a supra- 

 loral patch, which are streaked whitish ; jugulum squamated with white, the breast similarly, 

 but more broadly marked. Wing, tail, and rump, as in summer. Young, first plumage : Scap- 

 ulars and interscapulars black, broadly bordered with bright rusty and bufly-white, the latter 

 chiefly on the longer outer scapulars and lower back ; wing-coverts bioadly bordered -v^ith bufi"y- 

 white ; pileum streaked black and ochrey ; jugulum and breast pale buff, or buffy-white, streaked 

 with dusky. Downy young : Above, bright rusty-fulvous, irregularly mottled with black, the 

 back, wings, and rump flecked with yellowish-white papillfe ; head above deep fulvous-brown, 

 striped with velvety black from forehead to occiput, where confluent with a cross-bar of the 

 same ; lores with two parallel stripes of same. Lower parts white, distinctly fulvous on sides. 

 Wing 4.50-5.15 inches, average 4.86; culmen 0.9S-1.25, average 1.13; tarsus 0.88-1.00, 

 average 0.95 ; middle toe without claw 0.78-0.90, average 0.86. Aleutian Islands and Coast 

 of Alaska all the year round ; extent of migrations unknown, if any. 

 622. A. ptilocne'mis. (Gr. tttl^ov, jitilon, a feather ; KvrjfiU, Inemis, a greave ; the crus being feath- 

 ered.) Prybilov Sandpipek. Black-breasted Sandpiper. Different. Adult in breeding 

 (h-ess : With somewhat the appearance of a summer Pelidna alpina, but the black area pec- 

 toral, not abdominal. Crown, interscapulars, and scapulars black, completely variegated with 

 rich chestnut, ochrey, and whitish, the body of each feather being black, wdth one or another 

 or all the lighter markings ; the coronal separated from the dorsal variegation by a grayish- 

 white, dusky-streaked cervical interval. Lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts blackish, 

 little variegated with chestnut. Secondaries nearly all pure white, a few of the outermost and 

 innermost touched with grayish-brown near end. Primaries grayish-brown with white shafts 

 except at tip, fading to white on inner webs toward base ; several of the inner ones also largely 

 white on outer webs, and tipped with white. Central tail-feathers brownish-black ; next pair 

 abruptly paler, grayish ; rest white or whitish with pale gray tint. Front and sides of head, 

 superciliary line, tufts of flank-feathers, and entire under parts, white, interrupted on the 

 breast with a large but not well defined nor perfectly continuous blackish area, and marked 

 on the upper breast and sides with a few sharp blackish shaft-lines. A dusky auricular patch. 

 Legs and bill dark. Length apparently about 9.50 ; wing 4.80-5.30 ; tail 2.30-2.70 ; bill 

 1.10-1.40 ! tarsus 0.90-1.00 ; middle toe and claw 1.05-1.20 ; 9 averaging less than $, 

 Winter plumage as above said. First plumage : Upper parts much as in the adults, but the rusty 

 markings in curved rather than angular lines, and much narrower ; edges of wing-coverts ochrey. 

 Interior tail-feathers rusty-edged. Throat and breast more or less suffused \vith rusty; no black 

 pectoral area, but the jugulum, breast, and sides suffused with rusty. Chicks in down (July) : 



