THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA 129 



8. Charadrius fulvus. Golden Plover. 



The appearance of this specimen in my collection, was another new item added to the list of North Auieiiean 

 birds, siuce it is the hist American specimen of the true Asiatic fulvus, and not the North American var. Virginicus. 

 It came to St. Paul as a wanderer on the 2d of May, 1873, and the natives told me that, it was a frequent visitor in that 

 manner; a few stragglers landing in April, or the first days of May, and passing on their way north, never 

 remaining long. They return in greater number, however, by the close of September, and grow fat upon the larvte 

 generated over the killing-grounds, leaving for the south by the end of October. 



9. Strepsilas interpres. Turnstone; "Krass-nie Ko-lit-skie," or " Krassnie Nogie." 



This is a very handsome bird when in full plumage, and arrives in flocks of thousands about the third week in 

 July, taking its departure from the islands along by the 10th of September. It does not breed here, and it comes, 

 undoubtedly, to feed upon the larvae and maggots of the killing-grounds. It is certainly one of the most attractive 

 of plovers, as it struts and marches with bright-red legs and intense black-banded breast, and a back shaded with 

 brown and green reflections. I am at a loss to fix its breeding place; I have met with it at sea 700 miles from 

 the nearest land, flying northwest toward the Aleutian islands, my ship being 800 miles west from the straits of Fuca. 



10. Lobipes hyperboreus. Northern Piialarope. 



A few couples breed on the islands, nesting around the margins of the lakelets. The egg I was unable to find, 

 but I secured several newly-hatched young ones, which were very interesting little creatures. They are only two 

 or three inches long, with bill about a third of an inch in length, and no thicker than an ordinary dressing-pin. 

 The down of the head, neck, and upper parts is a rich brownish yellow, variegated with black, the crown being 

 of this color mixed with yellow, and a long stripe extends down the back, flanked with one over each hip, and 

 another across the rump, and a shoulder spot on each side. The under parts are a grayish, silvery white. The 

 old bird, when startled or solicitous for the safety of its young, utters a sonorous il tweet" call, quickly repeated, 

 with long intervals of silence between them. 



11. Phalaropus fulicarius. Red Pualarope. 



Though I found this bird very much more abundant than the preceding species at certain times, yet I am 

 satisfied that it does not breed here. It is found, like the other, by the marshy margins of the pools and ponds, 

 usually solitary, though paired occasionally, but never in flocks. The earliest arrivals occur in June, but the birds 

 reappear in greatest number about the 15th of August. They all leave by the 5th of October. 



12. Tringa ptilocnemis. Thick-billed Sand-piper. "Ko-lits-kie." 



The most interesting result, in some respects, of my ornithological work, is the determination by my specimens 

 of the occurrence of this species in abundance on the Pribylov islands, where it breeds. That discovery adds a 

 species, previously uurecoguized as North American, to our fauna. As a long, elaborate, and graphic description of 

 the bird, based upon my collections, was made by Dr. Elliott Coues,* when he reviewed my labor on these islands, 

 I shall not duplicate it here; but I wish to give him credit for his prompt recognition of the novelty; and in this 

 connection let me add, that in 1874 I saw it just as abundantly on St. Matthew island. I should say, it is the only 

 wader that incubates on the Pribylov islands, with the marked exception of a stray couple now and then of Phalaropus 

 hyperboreus. It makes its appearance early in May, and repairs to the dry uplands and mossy hummocks, where it 

 breeds. The nest is formed by the selection of a particular cryptogamic bunch, and there setting. It lays four 

 darkly-blotched pyriform eggs, and hatches them within twenty days. The young come from the shell in a thick, 

 yellowish down, with dark brown markings on the head and back, getting the plumage of their parents and taking 

 to wing as early as the 10th of August ; at this season old and young flock together for the first time, and confine 

 themselves to the sand-beaches and surf-margins about the islands for a few weeks, when they take flight by the 1st or 

 5th of September, and disappear until the opening of the new season. It is a most devoted and fearless parent, and 

 will flutter in feigned distress around by the hour, uttering a low, piping note, should one approach near to its nest. 

 It makes a sound ridiculously like the cry of our tree-frogs, and I searched in consequence unavailingly for several 

 weeks, deceived by the call of this bird, for the presence of such a reptile.t 



* Condition of Affairs in Alaska: H. W. Elliott: 1874, p. 182. 



tWhen I was collecting this bird, I took it to be a well-defined Tringa maritima ; and did not suppose for an instant, that it was an 

 nndescribed species to the avifauna of both the old world and the new. Had I thought seriously of it, however, I might have had my 

 suspicions aroused then, and hence given it still more attention, so that my large series of specimens might have embraced the autumn or 

 perfected fall plumage ; and, I would also have secured many nests, rather than the single one which I did get. My old friend, Dr. Elliott 

 Coues, was the first to discover the originality of this new sand-piper, though he was very closely followed by that excellent authority on 

 Limicoliue birds, J. E. Halting, P. L. S., etc., of London, to whom Professor Baird sent one of my specimens of 1872, also, thinking it to 

 be T. maritima. A curious fact, however, is the remarkably restricted range which this strongly-built bird enjoys in Alaska ; it has been 

 seen nowhere except on these Pribylov islands and on St. Matthew, 200 miles to the north of them; where, in 1874, I saw large numbers, 

 breeding as they do here. I did not see one on St. Lawreuce, again to the northward, 180 miles from St. Matthew island, ami it h is 

 never been detected on the mainland, or the islands of the Aleutian chain, the peninsula, or northwest coast, inclusive, although that 

 country has been scoured over thoroughly by naturalists and collectors during the last fifteen years; therefore unless it is found and 

 winters on the large islands of the Commander group, 700 miles to the westward of the Prilylovs, I believe that its restriction as above 

 defined is only paralleled by the square mile limit of distribution peculiar to several species of South American humming birds. 



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