70 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
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Finally, I have referred five birds (Nos. 1637, 1641, 1646, 1652, and | 
1659), with much doubt, to the genus Tringites Cab., on account of the — 
very short bill, this being considerably shorter than the head, and the | 
long toes exceeding the tail by their whole length when stretched back- 
wards. The feathering of the bill seems to me likewise to be more pro- 
tracted than in other Tringine, although not to such a degree as given — 
for the American T. rufescens (Vieill.). Besides, there are no black mot- 
tlings on a white ground on the wing, only some faint whitish mottlings 
at the base of the remiges as it is often seen in Tringe. A conspicuous 
feature is the fine black bristles before and below the eyes, almost 
encircling them, and, upon the whole, more developed than in other 
genera. The color, except the rusty crown, is to a certain degree like 
the plumage of the snipe, and the bill, being somewhat widened, grooved, 
and furrowed at the tips, and having a very long nasal groove, also re- 
motely resembles that of the bird mentioned. 
The total number of species collected during these months amounts 
to sixty-one, without counting those collected in Petropaulski; and, 
besides these, I have observed about ten species of which no specimens 
have yet been secured. Among the latter is Sterna longipennis Temm., 
of which a specimen was shot during my stay in Petropaulski, but on 
my arrival I found it in such a state of decomposition that it was quite 
impossible to preserve it. This species bred on the island, but only in 
four pairs. I looked in vain for your Sterna aleutica. Upon the whole, 
the poverty of representatives of the subfamilies Sternine and Larine 
is very noticeable; thus, for instance, I have met with only one species 
of the genus Larus, L. glaucescens, Licht., being not so numerous, how- 
ever, as one might expect.* 
Of the seventy or more species obtained or observed here during the 
four months (of which one was spent on the trips to Petropaulski) from 
the middle of May to the middle of Septem ber, about one-third consists 
of circumpolar birds, one-third Pacific birds, while the remaining third 
is palearctic, or consists of East Asiatic forms. Only a few species can 
be regarded as American, viz, Haliwetus leucocephalus (L.), also occur- 
ring in Kamtschatka, and a Branta,t which I have provisionally iden- 
tified as lewcopareia (Brandt). During my absence in Kamtschatka a 
specimen was shot in the neighborhood of the village, and ——eaten! 
Fortunately, however, the head and upper part of the neck had been 
*The species of Larus observed on Toporkof Island by Dr. Kjellman and Dr. Stux- 
berg belongs here. From the translation of a portion of Professor Nordenskj6ld’snar- _ 
rative of the Vega expedition in Henry Elliott’s monograph of the Seal Islands, p.113, 
it would seem as if they also had found this bird there ‘‘ by the millions.” The Amer- 
ican edition by Leslie, p. 617, shows, however, that they expressly restrict this state- 
ment to Fratercula cirrhata in accordance with fact. 
+ Sundevall (Tent. meth. disp. Av., p. 145, 1872) has substituted for Branta Scop. 
Brenthus “ Antiq.,” a name accepted by some later authors, for instance Dr. Richenow 
(Orn. Centralbl., 1882, p. 36), but Brenthus is preoccupied for a genus of Coleoptera since 
1826. 
