28 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA [No. i. 



suddenly and run toward the locality with eyes peeled. The instant the bird 

 flushed, which was when I was still a long way off, I lined up the spot with two 

 or more land-marks, say a hummock or bush, and keeping my eye on the place, 

 stride over the intervening ground. Although I would sometimes think myself 

 sure of the exact clump of moss which the bird left, I would often search for ten 

 minutes in vain. Returning to another position somewhat nearer and keeping 

 my bearings from the other observation, I would repeat the manoeuvre, the bird 

 finally returning to the nest. The curlew would sometimes stealthily sneak 

 along a low place between the clumps of moss and grass for the last five or six 

 yards, so that one could not tell much from where the bird disappeared. I usually 

 waited some minutes after the bird went on the nest to give it time to settle down, 

 and then I would dash toward it in a hurry. Then it would be more likely to 

 flush directly from the nest. The eggs so closely resemble the monotonous lights 

 and shadows of the surrounding moss and grass that I have stepped directly over 

 the nest, all the while scrutinizing every foot of ground about me, without detect- 

 ing the eggs. Sometimes from the nature of the surroundings the eggs are more 

 conspicuous and can be seen ten yards or more, but this is the exception. While 

 one is at the nest, the parents fly close about one, almost deafening one with their 

 loud, penetrating cries. If anything, the male bird is the most demonstrative of 

 the two. The nest is simply a saucer-shaped depression in the top of a low hum- 

 mock of moss or grass. The locality was alwaj'S a wet swale or low place in the 

 tundra, in which the clumps of grass or moss were often surrounded at their bases 

 with water. The nests were in no way protected, the eggs always being in plain 

 view, but the remarkable mimicry in their coloration is generally of sufficient 

 protection. The number of eggs in a full set was invariably four. Of the eight 

 sets secured, two sets, slightly incubated, and one set, incubation far advanced, 

 were taken on June 14th; a set of slightly incubated eggs on the i6th; a set with 

 incubation barely begun and one set nearl}' hatched, on the 17th; a set of slightly 

 incubated eggs, and a nest containing two fresh eggs on June 20th. Twenty 

 eggs average ■ 2.36x1.64. The extremes are 2.22x1.66,2.35x1.70,2.54x1.61. In 

 shape they vary somewhat, but approximate subpyriform. Their ground color is 

 very variable, from a bluish pea-green through olive-buff" to light olive-green. The 

 markings are numerous and somewhat amassed at the larger ends of the eggs. 

 They consist of dots, spots and blotches of pale lavender, drab, Prout's brown and 

 bistre. The latter seems in every case the real pigment, and the varying depth 

 to which it is covered with subsequent layers of shell material, seems to account 

 for the diff"erent tints, even to the palest lavender. No downy young of the Hud- 

 sonian Curlew were obtained, but a nearly-fledged juvenile with bits of grayish 

 down still adhering to the ends of the feathers of head, neck and crissum, was 

 secured at Cape Blossom on July 30th, '98. The native name of the curlew is 

 To"b-rat'ur-uk. 



Charadrius dominicus Miill. 

 American Golden Plover. 



Golden Plover were fairly common along the coast of Kotzebue Sound. In 

 June a few were seen over the tundras of the Kowak delta ten miles inland from 

 Hotham Inlet. The birds* were shy, however, and quite difficult of approach. 



