ic8 Howe., A Study of Macrorhamphus. [ A^ril 



the tremendous sexual variation in size of the Dowitchers was 

 brought to my notice. So very marked was this sexual variation 

 in specimen after specimen examined, and so weak did any color 

 difference appear, that I was at first strongly led to believe that 

 the species ^t/j-^//^ represented the males and scolopaceus ^\v^i^vck'^\^s 

 of one and the same species. Only after the examination of 

 many breeding specimens, over thirty in number, did I become 

 convinced that a subspecitic difference exists. I believe, with 

 Dr. Ridgway (Bull. N. O. C, Vol. V, pp. 157-160) that scolopaceus 

 should stand as a subspecies and out of which rank I cannot 

 see why it was taken, as intergrades unquestionably exist. I 

 have examined over two hundred and fifty specimens of the genus 

 Macrorhamphus with the result that I find that adults of the two 

 species, in summer or winter plumages, are to be determined 

 almost invariably by the criterion of bill measurement alone, and if 

 in breeding plumage to be even more easily separated. I have 

 been also able from the large series before me to more definitely 

 fix both the breeding ranges and the migratory route of the two 

 forms. 



In regard to the sexual variation shown in the order Limicolae, 

 it is interesting to note that in the Pectoral Sandpiper {Tringa 

 macnlata) (see A-uk, Vol. XVI, p. 179, and Vol. XVIII, p. 107), the 

 males exceed the females in size, while in the present genus the 

 reverse is true. The Wilson's Snipe {Galliiiago delicata), American 

 Woodcock {Phildhela fninor), the genera Lhnosa and Nu?ne?iiiis, all 

 show this latter type of sexual variation to a greater or less degree, 



Macrorhamphus griseus Gvielin. 



Geographical Breedijig Rafige. — The breeding range of this 

 species is given as "within the Arctic Circle'' in Chapman's 

 ' Hand-book' (p. 155), based on what data, other than hypotheti- 

 cal, I am ignorant. We know, however, from various sources ^ 

 that it breeds in Ungava. Its breeding range I think can be 

 safely said to be to the north and northeast of Hudson Bay, from 

 the 55th parallel northward to Greenland,^ probably also a little 



1 Turner, Birds of Labrador, 1885, p. 246; Stearns, Bird Life in Labrador, 

 1886, p. 53. 



^Arctic Manual and Instructions, 1875. 



