96 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
ish; mandible pale brownish, darker terminally, paler at base; ‘‘iris 
dark brown”; legs and feet deep brown, the tarsi rather paler. Wing 
3.10-3.45, tail 2.25-2.50, culmen .48, bill from nostril .35, tarsus .95-1, 
middle toe .65-.70, hind claw .40-.50. First, second, and third quills 
longest, and nearly equal (first, however, usually longest), fourth decid- 
edly (.15 of an inch or more) shorter. 
The six specimens collected by Dr. Stejneger differ more or less 
from one another in details of coloration and proportions. The mini- 
mum dimensions, as given above, are represented by a female (No. 89135, 
collector’s No. 1231) from Copper Island. All the remaining specimens 
being males, there is much uniformity of size among them. The color- 
ation varies much in intensity, notwithstanding the birds were all killed 
on nearly the same date. The deepest colored.individual is No. 89134, 
from Copper Island. In this the lower parts are bright, though (ex- 
cept on breast) rather pale, yellowish buff, with a sulphury tinge, ap- 
proaching white only on the abdomen and chin; the lower tail-coverts 
are a deep creamy buff, the longer with a distinct dusky streak near end. 
Along each side of throat extends quite a distinct though broken line 
of fine sagittate markings, extending almost if not quite to the chin. 
The palest example is No. 88992, from Bering Island. In this, the 
lower parts are buffy white, the breast and jugulum more distinctly 
buffy; the crissum is creamy white, or buffy white, and entirely immac- 
ulate; there is no trace of the line of dusky streaks along side of throat. 
Other specimens are variously intermediate, and there can be little 
doubt that the variation is, in part at least, purely individual. . 
There being no copy of the Fauna Japonica (Aves) accessible to me, I 
ani unable to verify the conjectured identity of this species with the 
Anthus japonicus of Temminck & Schlegel. Even if not this species it is 
probably already described, but I have not been able to find any descrip- 
tion at all applicable; and in view of the possibility of its proving new to 
science, I propose that it should bear the name of its talented discoverer. 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, February 13, 1883. 
DESCRIPTION OF A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES OF ALCYONOID 
POLYP, FROM JAPANESE WATERS, WITH REMARKS ON THE 
STKRUCTURE AND HABITS OF RELATED FORDIS, ETC. 
By ROBERT E. C. STEARNS. 
The interesting form herein described was obtained by Mr. W. J. 
Fisher, while acting as naturalist to the Tuscarora Telegraph Sound- 
ing Expedition, under Commander George E. Belknap, in 1873. The 
Specimens were purchased of Japanese fishermen at Enosima, by Mr. 
Fisher, who kindly presented them to the author. They now form a | 
part of the collections in the United States National Museum at Wash- 
ington. 
