222 PR.ECOCIAL GKALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



rustj- fiilvous, irregularly mottled with Llack, the back, wings, and rump ornamented by yellowish- 

 white downy flecks or papillaj ; head above deep fulvous brown, with a longitudinal stripe of 

 velvety black from the forehead to the occiput, where confluent with a cross band of the same, the 

 lores with two nearly parallel longitudinal streaks of black ; there are also other, rather indefinite, 

 black markings, chiefly on the superciliary and occipital regions. Lower parts white, becoming 

 distinctly fulvous laterally. 



Wing, 4.50-5.15 (4.86) inches ; culmen, .98-1.25 (1.13) ; tarsus, .88-1.00 (.95) • middle toe, 

 .78-.90 (.86). (Extreme and average measurements of 14 adults.) 



Hab. Aleutian Islands and coast of Alaska, north to St. Michael's ; west to Commander 

 Islands. 



The jjresent species is closely allied to Arquutella niarifima, BEr>Tf., and can 

 with difficulty be distinguished in its winter plumage. A close comparison, however, 

 shows that in this livery A. Couesi has decidedly less of the purple gloss to the dorsal 

 region, where the plumbeous borders to the feathers are both broader and paler ; the 

 foreneck is also invariably sc|uamated or streaked with white, and not uniformly 

 mouse-gray, as in markima. It is still more nearly related to A. ptilocnemis, Coues, 

 of the Prybilof Islands, but averages much smaller, and is always very much darker- 

 colored in everj' stage of plumage. The three are not only strictly congeneric, but 

 are very probably the descendants of one original stock ; but, since no intermediate 

 specimens have been observed in a large series of each kind, they may be considered 

 as having passed the " varietal stage," so that we may treat them as distinct species. 

 Both Mr. Harting and Dr. Coues were wrong in referring A. ptilocnemis to the same 

 group as Pelidna aljnna, which bears only a superficial resemblance in coloration, the 

 details of form being quite different. 



"Wliile I have been unable to find any name which can be applied to this species, 

 it appears that Pallas refers to it in his description of Tringa arqiiatella, in " Zoog. 

 Eosso-Asiat." II. p. 190, since he says that specimens of his species from the Kurile 

 Islands are marked with rusty yellow, as in the bird under consideration : " Corpus 

 supra plumis fuscis, margiue pallidis {in Cvrilica ave femiffinco-hiteis) . . . pectore 

 cinerescens (in curilica var. lutescens)." All Alaskan references to Trinrja maritima 

 of course apply to the present species. 



Aiquatella ptilocnemis. 

 THE PRYBILOF SANDPIPER. 



Tringa crassirontris, "Temm. &Schleg." Dall, Am. Nat. VIII. 1873, 635 (St. Paul's I. Alaska). — 

 Coues, in Elliott's Alaska, 1873 (not paged) ; ed. 1875, 182 ; Check List, 1873, no. 426 bis. 



Tringa ptilocnemis, Coues, in Elliott's Alaska, 1873 (not paged) ; ed. 1875, 182, footnote ; Birds N. 

 W. 1874, 491. 



ArqiuUdla iitiloaicmis, Ridgw. Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cliil), V. July, 1S80, 163 ; Nom. N. Am. B. 1882, 

 no. 532. — Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 622. 



Tringa gracilis, Harti.vg, P. Z. S. Apr. 1874, 242 (Prybilof Islands). 



Black-breasted Sandpiper, CouEs, 1. c. 



Hab. Prybilof Islands, Alaska. 



Sp. Char. Similar to A. maritima, but larger, and much lighter colored. Adult, hreeding- 

 plumagc : Back and scapulars light clay-color, or ochraceous, the centre of each feather black, the 

 tips of many of them narrowly whitish ; rump and upper tail-coverts dark slate, the feathers in- 

 distinctly tipped with plumbeous-gray. Wings plumbeous-gray, the coverts bordered with grayish 

 white, the greater coverts widely tipped with pure white ; several (three or four) of the inner 

 secondaries (not tertials) wholly pure white ; ]irimaries slate color, with white shafts, the inner 

 ones distinctly edged with white toward the base. Pileum light fulvous, widely streaked with 



