48 BULLETIN 146; UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



HETEROSCELUS BREVIPES (Vieillot) 

 POLYNESIAN TATTLER 



HABITS 



Three specimens of this Asiatic sandpiper have been taken in the 

 Pribilof Islands; the first was secured on St. Paul Island, October 4, 

 1911, by M. C. Marsh ; the other two were taken by G. Dallas Hanna, 

 on the same island, September 2, 1917, and September 17, 1919. 

 These constitute the only North American records. It is not easily 

 distinguished in life from the wandering tattler and so may have 

 occurred much of tener on our extreme western coasts. 



Dr. Leonard Stejneger (1885), w^ho took an adult male on Bering 

 Island, in the Commanders, May 28, 1882, devotes considerable space 

 to showing that this is a species distinct from iiiccmus; but some 

 recent writers have treated it as a subspecies. The principal differ- 

 ences are that hrevipes is somewhat smaller, has a shorter nasal 

 groove, and has the tarsus scutellated instead of reticulated at the 

 back; the belly and under tail coverts are pure white in all plumages, 

 whereas in incanus these parts are barred in the nuptial plumage; 

 and the upper tail coverts, which are nearly uniform gray in incanus^ 

 are distinctly barred with white. The structural differences would 

 seem to warrant specific rank. 



The Polynesian tattler is supposed to breed in eastern Siberia, from 

 Lake Baikal to Kamchatka, but, so far as I know, its nest has never 

 been found and nothing is known about its nesting habits, eggs, or 

 young. 



Plumages. — Except for the specific characters outlined above the 

 plumages and molts are similar to those of the wandering tattler. In 

 the Juvenal plumage the feathers of the upper parts are notched with 

 light buff or white; the upper tail coverts are tipped and irregularly 

 barred with the same colors ; the upper breast and flanks are suffused 

 with light gray, more or less mottled on the chest; the tail feathers 

 and W'ing coverts are tipped or notched or barred with pale buff or 

 white ; they are otherwise like winter adults. 



This plumage is worn until September, when the body plumage, 

 some of the tail feathers, and some of the wing coverts are molted, to 

 produce the first winter plumage, which can be distinguished from 

 the adult only by the retained tail feathers and wing coverts. In 

 some birds a partial prenuptial molt produces a plumage which is 

 nearly adult, but in others this molt is suppressed and a molt into the 

 adult winter plumage comes later. 



Adults have a complete postnuptial molt between July and Janu- 

 ary, and a partial prenuptial molt, involving the body plumage, the 

 tail and jome of the wing coverts, scapulars, and tertials. 



