44 BULLETIN" 146;, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



"brownish drab." They measure 43.3 by 32.7, 44.5 by 31.4, 44.1 by 

 31.5, and 43.7 by 32.3 milhmeters. 



Young. — The young are able to run about soon after they are 

 hatched and are carefully guarded by both parents. An adult, se- 

 cured by Mr. Murie with the downy young, proved to be a male. 

 "A whistled cheep, imitating a chick, would bring the excited bird 

 within a few feet." Mr. Jessup writes that the mother bird was 

 much distressed and attempted to lure him from her little one by 

 feigning lameness. 



Plu7)iages. — Mr. Murie (1924) has described the downy young 

 very well, as follows : 



These downy young may be described as follows : Under parts dull white with 

 a faint indication of grayish on upper breast and lower fore neck ; upper parts 

 pale gray, with a very slight suggestion of buffy on wings, rump, and tail, more 

 evident in the fresh specimens than in the skin ; upper parts narrowly, irregu- 

 larly, and indistinctly barred with blackish, with dull black loral and postocular 

 streaks and with irregular black spots on hind pileum. In a colored sketch 

 made from freshly killed bird, tarsus and upper part of toes appear dull 

 glaucous green ; the under surface of foot olive yellow ; bill dull glaucous blue. 



Another bird which I have examined, as a dried skin, does not 

 show any buffy tints. A young bird, mainly in juvenal plumage but 

 still downy on the hind neck, chin and forehead, taken on September 

 5, is from " deep mouse gray " to " dark olive gray " above, with very 

 faint whitish tips; the wing coverts have more prominent white 

 edgings ; the chest is " pallid mouse gray," and the flanks " pale mouse 

 gray," both more or less indistinctly barred; the rest of the under 

 parts are white. A limited postjuvenal molt of the body plumage 

 occurs in September, producing the first winter plumage ; this is much 

 like the adult, except that the juvenal wing coverts, some of the 

 scapulars and the mottled plumage of the breast and flanks are re- 

 tained. Some young birds apparently assume a plum^age which is 

 practically adult at the first prenuptial molt in April. 



Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from August to January, 

 the wings being molted last, between October and January. I have 

 seen birds in full nuptial plumage from April 13 to September 14 and 

 in full winter plumage as late as April 12. In winter adults the up- 

 per parts are slightly lighter gray than in summer, the sides of the 

 head, chest and flanks are still lighter gray and the chin and belly 

 are white. The partial prenuptial molt occurs in April. 



Food. — The usual feeding grounds of the wandering tattler are 

 the rocky shores, where it searches for its food among the kelp- 

 covered rocks at the water's edge, following the receding waves and 

 nimbly dodging the incoming breakers or making short flights to 

 avoid the surf. If over-taken and drenched it flies to a rock, shakes 



