CRUISE OF STEAMEll COKWJN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 83 



it passes to tlie south, aud is found on the various islands of IJering >Sea, except perhaps the 

 Aleutian chain, where it is yet to be recorded ; although, as it has been found abundant during 

 the migrations on the Seal Islands by Elliott, there is no doubt whatever that it also visits the 

 Aleutian chain. In addition to migrating along the west coast of America it also passes along 

 the Asiatic coast, by way of tlie Kurile Islands, to Japan and soutiiward, where it has been 

 recorded in winter, and the Sniithsouian has recently received spring binls in breeding plumage 

 from Japan. To the north along this coast it occurs as far as Bering Strait, if not beyond. A 

 number of pairs were seen mated and with nests on Saint Lawrence Island the last of June, ISSl ; 

 and while the Corwin was coaling in the vicinity of Cape Lisburne, during the first of August, 

 1881, I found these birds quite numerous ou the hills back from the coast, where they had been 

 breeding earlier in the season. The young were on the wing at the time of our visit, and were 

 found with tlieir parents seeking their food about the dry, hilly portions of the country in prefer- 

 ence to their usual haunts along the sea-shore or low grassy flats. They were seen afterwards 

 near Point Barrow and at Kotzebue Sound. 



strepsilas melanocephala vig. 



(84.) The Black Turn.stone. 



This species is far more numerous on the coast of Alaska during the summer than is the 

 preceding. It breeds abundantly about the coast of Norton Sound, and its familiar form is 

 met everywhere on the flat, grassy marshes and about the borders of brackish pools in this region. 



As the Corwin approached Wraugel Island, during the first of August, on her several 

 attempts to reach that land, small parties of these birds came off and circled about the ship, with 

 wistful curiosity, as if to iufpiire the cause aud purpose of this invasion into these heretofore unap- 

 proached shores. They were also observed once or twice iu the vicinity of Herald Island. 



On shore at Wraiigel Island we did not see a single example of these birds, although our 

 hasty visit might readily account for this. They occur on both coasts of Bering Sea. Their 

 winter home, so far as recorded, appears to be confined to the west coast of America, as no 

 instance is known to me of its capture during this season on the southeast coast of Asia. It may 

 be remarked here that among tlie very large collection of these two species of Turnstones obtained 

 by me in the North aud compared wMth the extensive series from that region which exists in the 

 Smithsonian collection, there does not appear to be the slightest intergradation of the characters 

 showing an approach of the two fotms; so there is every reason for agreeing with Mr. Ridgway 

 and terming the Black Turnstone a distinct species. The common Turnstone of the Bering Sea 

 coast and Eastern Asia, perhaps including those which are found on the islands of the South 

 Pacific, appear to show an average much darker plumage than birds from middle and north- 

 eastern America, and it is possible that it may be necessary to separate it from its eastern relative 

 as a geographical race, in which case the varietal nsivae pacificus is proposed for the new form. 



CHARADRIID.E. PLOVERS. 

 APHRIZA VIRGATA (Gmel. ) Gray. 



(85.) The Si^rf Bird. 



During several successive autumns at Saint Michael's, I had the good fortune to secure speci- 

 mens of this widely spread and interesting bird. It had pre\ iously been taken along the coast of 

 the North Pacific, reaching the southeastern shore of Alaska and thence .southward, but the 

 present record is the first of its occurrence in Bering Sea and places its range beyond (iM" north 

 latitude, and it undoubtedly reaches the vicinity of Btn-ing Strait, which lies but a short distance 

 farther to the north. In the vicinity of Saint Michael's it frequents the rocky shores of the small 

 outlying islands and the capes, whose rugged beach lines aflbrd them congenial haunts. Their 

 habits and feeding grounds are exactly those of the WaTidering Tattler, aud both species occur 

 in autumn or during the entire month of August, which answers in this latitude to the beginning 

 of autumn in more southern latitudes. They are never common, but appear as stray individuals 

 aud are not shv. 



