WANDEEING TATTLER 43 



Ten years later Olaiis J. Miirie (1924) collected a downy, young 

 wandering tattler on Jennie Creek, a small tributary of Savage 

 Hiver, in the Alaska Kange, on June 9, 1922, The following year he 

 completed the record by finding a nest and collecting the first and 

 only set of eggs ever taken. He has given us a very good account 

 of the whole proceeding, from which I quote, as follows : 



The following day, July 1, we continued up Savage River 9 miles and made 

 permanent camp. We had been on the lookout for the birds and I had pointed 

 out to i\Ir. Buhmann one in the distance, that he might have an idea for 

 •v\hat we were looking. About noon Mr. Bulimann and my brother were riding 

 on the wagon, while I walked ahead over the usual gravel bars, when Mr. 

 Buhmann suddenly called out to me, "Is that one of your birds?" I turned 

 and saw a wandering tattler flying away. The bird had been flushed by the 

 horses. "We all three walked back carefully beside the wagon and in a few 

 moments spied the nest and eggs a short distance to the rear, not over 6 

 inches from the wheel track! Mr. Buhmann picked up one of the eggs, wish- 

 ing, as he enthusiastically explained, to be the first one who had ever handled 

 the egg of a wandering tattler. I explained that the eggs should not be dis- 

 turbed until photographed, and it was carefully replaced in the nest. A series 

 of exposures was made of the nest and eggs, and we moved away some distance 

 with our outfit and prepared our lunch. In the meantime the bird returned 

 and settled on the nest. Several photographs were then taken of the bird on 

 the eggs, the last one at a distance of about 10 feet or less. The nest and 

 eggs were then taken and carried to our camping ground. 



All our obser^-ations indicate that this nesting site is characteristic, that 

 the wandering tattler prefers tlie gravel bars of mountain streams, as typified 

 by Savage River. These rivers are rapid and split into numerous channels, 

 sometimes in an intricate network over the gravelly valley. This nest was 

 found on Savage River about 5 miles above the mouth of Jennie Creek at an 

 elevation of about 4,000 feet. It was placed on a gravel bar about 30 feet 

 from the nearest water, and was sunk in a shallow depression in the gravel. 

 It was well built, unusujflly elaborate for a shore bird. It was composed prin- 

 cipally of fine roots carefully woven into a firm structure, including a number 

 of twigs around the edges. Small bits of twigs and some dry leaves had been 

 used for lining. It was so compact that I had no difiiculty in picking it up 

 and transporting it to camp. The diameter of the nest to the edges of the finely 

 woven body was about 5 inches, but, of course, some of the twigs extended 

 much farther. 



Eggs. — The eggs taken by Mr. jMurie on Savage Kiver, Alaska, 

 July 1, 1923, are now in the United States National Museum and 

 are, so far as I Imow, the only eggs in existence. In shape they are 

 between pyriform and subpyriform, and they have a slight gloss. 

 The ground color is between " glaucous " and " greenish glaucous," 

 as in some crow's eggs. They are spotted and blotched irregularly, 

 rather heavil}^ near the larger end and rather sparsely elsewhere, 

 with dark browns, from " seal brown " or "bone brown " to " burnt 

 umber " or " Verona brown " ; there are some elongated splashes and 

 some small, inconspicuous, underlying spot of various shades of 



