BIRDS. 127 



Young birds iu their tirst plumage are seeu the first half of July. They have a white frontal 

 bar ami the pectoral collar is browu like the crown and back. Tlie feathers of crown and back 

 are uarrowlj- edged with pale buff, and a narrow collar of blackish borders the front of the brown 

 of back, separating it from the white ring about the neck. The bill is entirely black and the feet 

 dingy fleshy yellow. 



The downy young are pretty little objects, with the crown and entire back ashy-brown, with 

 a faint buffy shade in places, and the entire surface irregularly maculated with black. The colors 

 of the crown and back are separated by a white collar, which joins the uniform white of the lower 

 surface on the sides of the neck. 



^GIALITIS MONGOLA. (Pall.) Mongolian Plover. 



This handsome addition to the Plovers of North America was made by the captain of the ship 

 Plover, during his visit to Kotzebue Sound, in the summer of 1849, when he secured two specimens 

 upon Choris Peninsula. It is a common summer resident on the Commander Islands, where it 

 arrives during the first half of May and leaves the last of September. Their eggs were taken 

 there by Stejenger the first of June and the young about the middle of July. A nest found on 

 June 4 contained three eggs. It was in a hollow between the stems of four Angelica arcliangelica 

 and lined with dry fragments of leaves and stems of the same plant. The eggs are described by 

 Stejueger as being larger and of a deeper ground color than eggs of JE. semipalmata, and the si^ots 

 average rather smaller than on eggs of the lattei*. 



The Choris Peninsula specimens alluded to above were presented some years since to the Oxford 

 Museum, among other birds, by Sir John Barrow, and the only published account of them which I 

 have been able to find is that by Mr. Harting in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of Loudon 

 for 1871 (p. 110). As the bird is now first recognized as a member of the American fauna, I append a 

 description of it taken from a beautiful male recently received by the National Museum from Yoka- 

 hama, Japan. This bird, an adult male (No. 85779, National Museum collection), taken April 

 28, 1881, is marked as follows: Crown, ashy-brown on the posterior half, and much mingled with 

 dull buff; forehead black, the black reaching back of and bordering the orbit in front. A 

 concealed, badly-defined line of white is found upon the edge of the black frontal baud just above 

 the lores, and extends around the frontal region as an indistinct light line, which thus divides the 

 frontal band into an upper and lower portion. This light or white area is very indistinct, beiug 

 merely a spot just over the base of the culmen, but is distinctly marked on each side in front of 

 the orbit. Commencing at the base of the upper mandible at each side and extending back, 

 including cheek and ear-coverts, is a broad black bar. Chin and throat clear bright white. This 

 area covers the sides of the neck and entire base of lower mandible ; entire breast occupied by 

 a broad band of rich buff, approaching chestnut. This area extends irregularly along the sides 

 from the flanks and, reaching over the back of the neck, forms a collar of a duller shade of the same 

 color. In the perfect plumage this color extends up over the entire crown. Entire back and ter- 

 tials, scapulars, and middle of rump pale olive-brown with a wash of grayish; feathers of the 

 sides of the rump and upper tail-coverts bordered and edged with white; tail ashy-brown, becom- 

 ing lighter towards the sides, where the outer feather is white ; quills dark brown, and the shaft 

 of the outer primary white. The rest of the primary shafts are dark brown with a median white 

 or pale stripe. A white wing- bar is produced by the edgings of the coverts ; secondaries and some 

 of the single primaries bordered with white areas of varying extent; abdomen white, much duller 

 than the clear blight white of the chin and throat. 



Dimensions: Wing, 5.15; tail, 2; tarsus, 1.18; culmen, .60. 

 . For peculiarities of plumage, discussion of synonomy, range, &c., of this species, the reader 

 is referred to Mr. Harting's paper upon the little-known Limicoke, in the Ibis for 1870. 



Apbhiza virgata (Gmel.). Surf-bird. . 



During the exploration .of the Western Union Telegraph Company iu Alaska, four specimens 

 of this widely-spread bird were taken in the vicinity of Sitka by Bischoft'. North of this there is 

 no record except that of the birds secured by myself in the vicinity of Saint Michaels. It is a 



