108 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Carolina, in addition to the Atlantic coast route referred to above. 

 Professor Rowan writes to me that dowitchers are common on both 

 migrations in Alberta, and says : 



In a long series of spring and fall skins, there is every gradation from the 

 supposed typical eastern form (gris<cus) to the so-called long-billed form (scolo- 

 paceus). Bill lengths and colors do not correspond as they are supposed to do. 

 As far as this district is concerned, there is absolutely no evidence in support 

 of the splitting of this species into two races. The only two really long-billed 

 birds that have been taken, were deliberately collected from a flock as their 

 bills were so obviously longer than those of their companions even in life. 

 Intermediate lengths, fonning a nicely graded series, have been secured. The 

 colors and markings of the spring birds are infinite in variety, and do not 

 correspond to the bill lengths that should go with them. 



There is a northward migration through the interior, in which this 

 form is undoubtedly represented, but to what extent it is hard to tell, 

 as it is impossible to separate all the records. Both forms are 

 recorded on migrations in California and British Columbia. 



Courtship. — Richard C. Harlow has sent me some brief notes on 

 the courtship of this species, as seen on its breeding grounds in 

 Alberta. There were at least eight pairs of birds in the vicinity and 

 they kept up their courtships until he left on June 9. The males 

 apparently outnumber the females, for at least two females were seen 

 surrounded by little groups of three or four males, frequently sing- 

 ing and displaying. " The male frequently strutted like a woodcock 

 and displayed, and several times arose and gave his flight song, a 

 clear, liquid, musical, contralto gurgle." Professor Rowan thinks 

 that both sexes indulge in this song. 



Nesting. — The breeding range of the eastern dowitcher is imper- 

 fectly known or not known at all, unless we include the birds which 

 breed in Alberta under this form, where in my opinion they belong. 

 Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1912) writes: 



The nest and eggs of the dowitcher are not yet known to science, nor has the 

 species been seen in summer at any place where it was probably breeding. 

 The dowitcher is a common migrant on the coasts of New Jersey, New York, 

 Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, and in fall is sometimes very abundant. 

 Farther north its numbers decrease : New Hampshire, tolerably common in fall, 

 no spring records ; Maine, tolerably common spring and fall ; Quebec, rare 

 migrant; New Brunswick, no records; Nova Scotia, once (Sharpe) ; Prince 

 Edward Island, once ; Ungava, a few in August, I860, at Henley Harbor 

 (Coues), one June 10, 1S83, at Fort Chimo (Turner). North of Ungava, the 

 only record is that of a single accidental occurrence at Fiskenaes, Greenland 

 (Bernhardt). Evidently the dowitcher does not breed in any numbers, on the 

 eastern coast of Ungava. The probability that it does not breed there at all is 

 strengthened by the fact that several first-class observers, who during the fall 

 migration were in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, did not see any of the birds. It 

 undoubtedly does not go into northeastern Keewatin and the islands of the 

 Province of Franklin, for it is not reported by the various expeditions that 

 have traveled and wintered in those districts, while the specimens taken on 



