68 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
albicilla (L.). There are two other species, however, of which I know 
only the names, viz, H. leucoryphus (Pall.) and H. leucogaster (Gm.); but 
Dr. Dybowski, who is well acquainted with the former, asserts that this 
is quite a different bird, while Dr. Henry Guillemard, who has been 
collecting in Central Africa and is quite familiar with the latter, corrob- 
orated the same statement upon seeing my bird during a day’s visit 
here. Both received the impression that the species is a new one. 
Did I not have the hope that Mr. Ridgway would take the trouble to 
compare this specimen with those in the National Museum, and describe 
it if he should come to the same conclusion, I should not hesitate to 
give ita name. But as the collection of birds will be placed in such 
good hands as his, I think it advisable to wait for his decision. 
In this connection I will merely mention some other forms which I 
suspect to have been hitherto more or less unknown, or wrongly known, 
likewise leaving to Mr. Ridgway the labor of having them compared, 
described, and named if he should find them to be actually new. 
In the first place I call your attention to the four larks, Nos. 1020 and 
1117 from Bering Island, and 1242 and 1249 from Petropaulski, where 
I found this species, in one place at least, tolerably common. The 
lengths are respectively, 186, 187, 183, and 173™™; iris, dark brown; 
bill, pale flesh color; culmen and tips of both mandibles, blackish brown; 
feet, light reddish brown; tarsal joint, dark grayish; toes below, livid; 
nails, blackish gray. It is much like the common European Alauda 
arvensis L., but it appears to me to have lighter and clearer colors. The 
size agrees very well with that of birds from Northern Europe. 
No. 1251 is another passerine bird, thought to be new. It is a kind 
of willow-warbler, common in Petropaulski, but not observed here on 
the islands. My only specimen is a male, shot on the 5th of July, 1882. 
Total length, .149™™; iris, hazel; feet, clear yellowish brown. 
The loud song, consisting of the syllables witshe-witshe-witshe-witsh, 
and somewhat resembling the sound made by whetting a scythe, was 
heard, especially towards night, from all sides when walking through 
the high grass and willows covering the swampy slopes of the mount- 
ains with a thicket almost impenetrable both to foot and eye. You 
would very seldom get a glimpse of the watchful songster, when, cling- 
ing to the middle of the upright stalk of some high orchid or grass, he 
did his best in the singing-match with one of his own kind or a Calliope 
kamtschatkensis or a Carpodacus. But no sooner would you move your 
gun to secure the longed-for specimen than he silently disappears, as 
completely and suddenly as if he possessed Dr. Fortunatus’s cap. The 
only way to obtain a specimen is to watch patiently near one of his 
favorite bushes, with the gun ready. For hours I have thus sat in 
the wet swamp, almost desperate from the bites of the numberless 
bloodthirsty mosquitos, which I did not dare to wipe off, fearing to drive 
away the silent bird, who perhaps was watching my immovable figure 
until he was satisfied as to his safety. Curious, but still cautious, he 
