Sz Recent Literature. [January 



Dr. Stejneger has given a preliminary account of his journey' to and work 

 at Bering Island, a locality of special interest as being the point where 

 Steller, a century ago, passed some time in studying the fauna, and where 

 he wrote his celebrated memoir on the northern sea cow {Rkytina 

 gigas) and some of the large marine Carnivora of Bering Sea. It is 

 therefore a locality of historic interest, as well as one offering great 

 promise of remains of the extinct sea cow, many of which Dr. Stejneger 

 obtained. At the date of his letter he had already devoted some 

 months to the study of the natual history of the island, and his narrative 

 relates to the fauna in general. Besides treating at length of some of 

 the more interesting of the marine mammals, and including many notes 

 on the invertebrates, the narrative contains much that relates to the birds. 

 Special but unsuccessful search was made for the Great Northern Sea- 

 Eagle {Tkalassaetiis j)elagicus) and Pallas's Cormorant {Pkalacrocorax 

 J>erspicillatus), there being "no hope whatever of getting a specimen of 

 the latter, and very little of obtaining the former from Bering Island," 

 their assigned habitat. The Cormorant, he states, appears to have been 

 exterminated by the natives some thirty years ago. Dr. Stejneger, how- 

 ever, discovered there a large Sea-Eagle, which he believes must be new, 

 and which Mr. Ridgway has since described (^Haliaetns kypoleucus Stejn. 

 MS.) as such from specimens obtained by Stejneger. He also obtained 

 several Passerine birds and Sandpipers believed by him to be new, and 

 three of the former have now been described as new by Mr. Ridgway, as 

 noted below. 



Dr. Stejneger collected sixty-one species of birds from Bering Island, 

 while ten others were observed. A number of additional species were 

 obtained at Petropaulski. The ornithological matter in the present 

 paper occupies pp. 65-74, besides passing mention of birds elsewhere. 

 In addition to notes at some length on the more interesting species, con- 

 siderable space is devoted to observations on the change of color in the 

 Ptarmigans {Lagopus alhus*), but no satisfactory solution of the problem 

 is reached. 



Mr. Ridgway, t upon examination of Dr. Stejneger's material, has de- 

 scribed the following species as new: (i) Haliaetus kypoleucus Stejn., 

 MS. ; (2) Acrocephalus dybowskii Stejn., MS. ; (3) Anorthura pallescens 

 Stejn., MS., of the size and proportions of ^. alascensis, but "in coloration 

 entirely different"; (4) Hirundo saturata Stejn., MS., "similar to H. ery- 

 tkrogastra, but much more richly colored beneath," etc. For a species 

 described and doubtfully referred to Anthus japonicus Tem. and Schl., is 

 proposed the name 'A stepiegeri, sp. nov. , if new." — ]. A. A. 



* We are informed by the author that what is here called Lagopus "albus" turns out 

 to be a form of L. mutiis; while Leucosticte "brunneinucha" (p. 71) is a slip of the 

 pen for L. grlseiiiucha. 



t Descriptions of some Birds supposed to be undescribed, from the Commander 

 Islands and Petropaulovski, collected by Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, U. S. Signal Service_ 

 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1883, pp. 90-96. July 21, 1883. 



