244 DR. J. E. GRAY ON MUT.ETIA SEPTEMCINCTA. [Apr. 21, 



and toes in T.maritima, as also the base of the mandibles, being of a 

 yellowish clay colour, while the same parts in T. gracilis, as in T. 

 alpina, are black. 



The discovery of this new species of Sandpiper will be as gratifying 

 to ornithologists as it was unexpected, and I feel much indebted to 

 Professor Baird for having afforded me an opportunity of bringing it 

 to their notice. Although it has only been met with hitherto upon 

 St. Paul's Island, Alaska, there is no reason to suppose that it has a 

 very restricted range. On the contrary, being capable, like all its 

 congeners, of powerful flight, I should at least expect to hear of it 

 on the mainland on both sides of Behring Sea, and probably as far 

 northward as the Arctic Circle. 



Moreover, it is not unlikely that on the west coast of North 

 America it may have been mistaken for Tringa alpina, var. ameri- 

 cana, Cassiu. It should be observed that in comparing the dimen- 

 sions of the species above named, I have preferred to take an average 

 specimen of T. alpina without reference to locality (it happeus to 

 have been obtained in England), rather than select, as I might have 

 done, an American example, which would only differ in having the 

 bill equal to, or slightly longer than, that of T. gracilis ; for this 

 long-billed variety, as I have before pointed out (P. Z. S. 1871, 

 p. 115), is not confined to the American continent. 



PS. (June 20, 1874). — Since the foregoing remarks were written, 

 I have been in correspondence with Dr. Elliott Coues on the subject 

 of a Tringa recently described by him as Tringa ptilocnemis in an 

 "Appendix" to Mr. H. W. Elliott's 'Report on the Prybilov 

 Islands.' This "Appendix" I have not yet seen, although Dr. 

 Coues has most kindly forwarded proof-sheets of the body of the 

 work ; but I have no doubt, from his letters to me on the subject, 

 that his bird is the species now under notice. 



Dr. Coues informs me that the work referred to, although dated 

 1873, was not actually published until either January or February 

 of the present year. — J. E. H. 



7. On the Short-tailed Armadillo (Muletia septemcincta) . 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



[Eeceived March 12, 1874.] 



(Plate XLI.) 



The British Museum has received a skeleton, frontal and dorsal 

 disk, and tail of the Short-tailed Armadillo, made from an adult 

 specimen, which I believe was alive in the Society's Gardens*. 



* The specimen from which the skeleton was prepared was presented to the 

 Society by Mrs. Mackinlay, July 18th, 1873, along with another of the same 

 species. Other examples had previously been received from the same donor. 

 See Tatttsia hybrida, Revised List of Vert. p. 1 1 0. — P. L. S. 



