BIEDS. 101 



spicuous denizens of the marshes. At the Yukon moiith, on May 28, 1 came across a female busily 

 at work, preparing a little hollow in a tussock for her eggs, and as I drew near she moved a little 

 to one side, and uttered a sharp, querulous note, as if protesting against the intrusion. We took 

 the hint and left her; but a second visit, some days later, showed the spot deserted. These are 

 very demonstrative birds in their love-making, and the last of May and first of June their loud 

 cries are heard everywhere about their hatints, especially in morning and evening. 



Two or three males start in pursuit of a female and away they go twisting and turning, here 

 and there, over marsh and stream, with marvelous swiftness and dexterity. At short intervals 

 a male checks his flight for a moment to utter a strident peet u tveet; icee-too, wee-too ; then on he 

 goes full tilt again. After they have mated, or when a solitary male pays his devotions, they rise 

 16 or 20 yards from the ground, where, hoveriug upon quivering wings, the bird pours forrh a 

 lisping but energetic and frequently musical song, which can be very imperfectlj'^ expressed by 

 the syllables peet-peet ; pee-ter-wSe-too ; wee-too; pee-ter-wee-too ; pee-ter-wee-too ; wee-too; wee-too. 

 This is the complete song, but frequently only fragments are sung, as when the bird is in pursuit 

 of the female. 



June 16, while crossing a tussock- covered hill-top, over a mile from any water, I was surprised 

 to see a female of this species flutter from her nest about 6 feet in front of me, and skulk off 

 through the grass with trailing wings and depressed head for some 10 or 15 yards, then stand 

 nearly concealed by a tuft of grass and watch me as I pillaged her home of its treasures. 



The eggs, four in number (set I^o. 299), rested in a shallow depression formed by the bird's body 

 in the soft moss and without a trace of lining. These eggs measure respectively 1.80 by 1.21; 1.70 

 by 1.20; 1.69 by 1.20; 1.72 by 1.23. A second set of four (No. 328), taken on lower ground, June 

 20, the same season, measure 1.80 by 1.22; 1.72 by 1.23; 1.87 by 1.24; 1.83 by 1.25, and set No. 

 222, from a boggy flat, but with no nest, except the dead grass naturally found on the place occu- 

 pied, was taken June 13, the same season, and measures 1.73 by 1.23; 1.72 by 1.23; 1.70 by 1.22; 

 1.72 by 1.22. The ground-color varies from a greenish clayey olive to a light grayish or clay color. 

 The spots are large, well defined, and scattered sparsely, except about the tip of large end, where 

 they are crowded. These spots are dark umber- brown, and present a striking contrast to the ground- 

 color. All the eggs mentioned above were fresh, but the young are full grown and on the wing 

 with their parents the last of July, and the first of August finds the adults rapidly changing their 

 breeding- dress for that of winter, and gathering into flocks. By the first of September they are 

 in perfect winter dress, and frequent muddy flats, the edges of tide creeks, and other places, ex- 

 actly as they do in their passage south or north in middle latitudes. They have the same unsus- 

 picious ways here as there, and may be shot at again and again, as they keep about their wounded 

 comrades. Not long after griseus and scolapaeeus were first distinguished many ornithologists 

 reunited the two as inseparable, but lately Messrs. Eidgway and Lawrence, in the Nuttall 

 Ornithological Club Bulletin, for July, 1880, have adduced proof which must go far toward convinc- 

 ing the most skeptical of their difference. 



Having occasion in the preparation of this article to compare my Alaska n series with the 

 specimens from various parts of the country in the National Museum collection, I find there is not the 

 slightest difficulty in distinguisbing the two birds except in very rare instances. In the consid- 

 erable number of skins from both sides of the continent the following points appear almost in- 

 variably diagonistic : In the breeding plumage of griseus, a dull, pale buff shade extends over all 

 the under surface of the body in richly-colored specimens, but is very pale on the throat and abdo- 

 men. In average specimens the middle of the abdomen and throat are generally much washed 

 with dingy white. The throat may or may not be maculated in either form. In griseus the macu- 

 lations, commencing as fine markings, extend over the breast, where they are most numerous, 

 and then are scattered irregularly over the abdomen. On the breast and abdomen the spots tend 

 to assume a rounded form in griseus with transverse barring on the flanks, which latter sometimes 

 shows faintly'on the abdomen. The dorsal colors of breeding griseus average darker than in seolop- 

 aceus, and the light edgings of the feathers are less distinctly marked. 



In scolopaceus the entire under surface is a uniform rich buff or reddish brown, in its lightest 

 phase scarcely so light as in the darkest examples of griseus. The throat is commonly immaculate, 

 as invariably are the lower half of the breast and entire abdomen. The maculations of the lower 



