274 Dr. E. Coues — From Arizona to the Pacific. 



the eyelids, a narrow ring of pure white is seen encircling the 

 cornea. The bill is rather bright yellow, the culmen and gonys 

 more greenish ; the hard parts of the mouth the same, the soft 

 fauces light purple or lavender. The insides of the legs and 

 soles of the feet are black ; the outside of the tarsus and dorsum 

 of the foot dull bluish-green ; the centres of each web yellowish 

 flesh -colour. I found their stomachs crammed with a species 

 of slender aquatic grass. 



All these birds were around us while on the bay. A long 

 low sandy island lies across its mouth as a breakwater ; and on 

 the sea-side of this the Doctor assured me I should see another 

 bird that does not ever leave the sea-beach itself, and withal so 

 rare in collections as to make the acquisition of good specimens 

 a matter of some consequence. It was the ^gialites nivosus of 

 Cassin, first noticed, I believe, by Dr. A. L. Heermann, in the 

 Ornithological Report of Lieut. R. S. Williamson's Survey for a 

 Pacific Railroad (1859, p. 64), under the name of " Charadrius 

 cantianus, Lath.," but very different, of course, from any other 

 North American or European Plover — so much so, indeed, that 

 Bonaparte places it in his genus Leucopolius. It was only a 

 few hundred yards from where we landed, on the bay side of 

 the island, to the shore of the " far-resounding sea ; " but, by 

 racing at full speed through the heavy soft sand, joined to the 

 exciting expectation of so soon seeing a new bird, I was quite 

 breathless, and my heart was thumping furiously by the time I 

 stepped on the moist sand. Yes ! there they were sure enough, 

 a flock of snow-white little beauties, dallying so fearlessly with 

 the huge waves. I fancy my chagrin and disgust must have 

 partaken a little of the sublime when, after blindly blazing 

 away into the flock, I picked up a capful of — Sanderlinys ! Dr. 

 Cooper's cachinations nowise tended to smooth my ruffled mental 

 plumage. However, a few moments afterwards a flock of jE. 

 nivosus alighted close by me ; and, with a little patience and 

 strategy, I soon had a dozen of the lovely birds in my hands. 

 They are not at all shy, rather the reverse ; but the hue of their 

 backs so exactly corresponds with that of the sand, that it is 

 next to impossible to see them until they move. I believe they 

 never leave the open sandy beach for lagunes or mud-flats. 



