SCOLOl'AClD.t; — TlIK .SXIl'K FAMILY — AKQL'ATELLA. 223 



blackish ; nape lij,'!it fulvous, mixed with pale grayish, narrowly and indistinctly streaked, An 

 indistinct loral stripe (this suinetimes obsolete), a:id auriculars, pale grayish iulvuus, finely and 

 indistinctly streaked ; rest of tlie head, including a superciliary stripe, and entire lower parts, 

 white, the juguluni usually (in liighest plumage) washed with ochraceous, and (always?) streaked 

 with dusky ; breast blotched with dusky, the blotches usually coalesced into an irregular large 

 patch, sometimes covering the whole lircast ; flanks and under tail-coverts marked spai'sely with 

 very narrow shaft-streaks of ilusky. Inner border of the wing spotted with light grayish, and 

 under primary coverts very pale ash-gray. Adult, winter jylumagc : Wings, riim]i, tail-coverts, tail, 

 and posterior low-er parts as in the summer plumage. Remaining upper parts continuous light ashy 

 plumbeous (many shades lighter than in A. maritimci), the feathers of the hack and the scapulars 

 darker centrally, and with a very faint purplish gloss in certain lights. Head light grayish, darker 

 anil almost uidjroken on the pileum, lighter and streaked with white elsewhere, the throat white, 

 and but sparsely streaked. Juguliim and breast white, irregularly marked with pale ash-gray. 



Young, first phniuiyc : Above, very sindlar to the summer dress of the adult, but the wing-coverts 

 widely bordered with pale bufl'; liead and neck also very similarly colored. Jugulum pale huff, 

 distinctly marked with short .streaks and sagittate marks of dusky gray. Downy Youny : Above, 

 bright tawny fulvous, irregularly marbled with black, the back and rump bespangled with downy, 

 dot-like flecks of yellowish white ; the nape nearly uniform liglit fulvous grayish ; forehead ]iale 

 butt', with a very narrow medial streak of black, reaching nearly to the bill, and extending pos- 

 teriorly into the fulvous of the crown and occiput, which is irregularly marljled, longitudinally, 

 with hhick ; a narrow black lonil streak reaching about half way to the eye, with a stUl narrower 

 rictal streak. 



Total length, about 9.50 inches ; wing, 5,00-5.40 ; culmen. l.l.'j-1.45 ; tar.sus, .95-1,00 ; middle 

 toe, .85-,98. 



Although, at first sight, this Sandpiper seems very distinct from A. maritima and A. Couesi, 

 especially the latter, the apparent cliflerences become greatly reduced upon the careful examination 

 of a large series of specimens. The dimensions, whUe averaging consiilerably greater (except as 

 regards the feet), are yet foimd to inosculate with those of that species, while the difterence in 

 plumage, as compared with A. Couesi, proves to be solely one of intensity of colors — the lighter 

 tints jjrevailing in ptilocnemis, the darker ones in Couesi. The exact correspondence of pattern of 

 coloration between the two extends to every .stage of plumage, even including the downy chick. 

 We therefore, all things considered, look upon the pi-esent bird as being merely a local insular race 

 of a species of which A. Couesi represents the resident form of the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian 

 Chain, and from which A. marittTna is perhaps not specifically distinct. 



For what little we know of tlie liabits of this newly discovered species we are 

 indebted to Mr. Henry W. Elliott, who found a few breeding on the Prybilof Islands. 

 In his brief account of its manner of life he states that it was the only Wader that 

 he found breeding on these islands, with the marked exception, now and then, of 

 a stray pair of Lobijjes ht/jjerboreus. It is said to make its appearance early in 

 ]\Iay, and to repair to the dry uplands and mossy hummocks, where it breeds. Its 

 nest is simply a cavity in a bunch of moss, in which the bird dejw.sits its four darkly 

 blotched pyriform eggs, hatching them out -within twenty days. 



The young come from the shell clothed in a thick yellowish down, with dark-brown 

 markings on the head and back, but taking on the x^lnmage of their parents, and 

 being able to fly as early as the 10th of August ; and at that season old and young 

 flock together for the first time, and confine themselves to the sand-beaches and sitrf- 

 margins about the islands for a few weeks, when they take flight, leaving the islands 

 from about the 1st to the 5th of Se])tember, and disappearing until the opening of 

 the new season. 



Mr. Elliott describes this bird as a most devoted and fearless parent, and states 

 that he has known it to flutter in feigned distress around by the hour, uttering a low 

 piping note when its nest was too nearly approached. It also makes a sound exactly 



