106 



NATURAL HISTOEY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



Island iu June kept flyiug up some 10 or 15 yards, its wiugs beating with a rapid vibrating 

 or tremulous motion, while the bird thus poised trilled forth a clear, rather musical and liquid but 

 hard, whistling note, which is probably the same note which Elliott likens to the trill of the tree-, 

 frog. The short song ended, the musician glides to the ground upon stiffened wings and resumes 

 his feeding or stands silently for a time on a projecting rock or knoll. On Saint Lawrence Island 

 the pair was in possession of a bare, desolate wind-swept hill-top, where the vegetation consisted 

 mainly of small lichens and stunted Arctic plants hugging close to the earth for shelter from 

 the raw fog-laden winds. The damp climate of summer on the islands of Bering Sea seems to 

 possess an attraction for this narrowly-limited species, which appears to be absolutely restricted 

 to a series of four small islands within a linear distance of 500 miles, and is, thus far, totally 

 unknown from the adjacent coast upon either side, where, however, a closely allied form occurs. 

 In addition to its greater size this bird is separated from couesi by the much lighter colors of the 

 breeding plumage. 



Description of the summer plumage (specimen from the Seal Islands, June, 1872, Elliott). — 

 Crown dark brown, edged with pale fulvous rusty. Nape and sides of neck dull plumbeous ashy, 

 approaching white on latter area. Feathers of back and scapulars with black centers, with a 

 broad edging of pale buff anteriorly, and tinged with a shade of rusty-red posteriorly. The 

 feathers just over the bend of the wing are rusty-red of a lighter shade than in couesi. The tertials 

 and wing-coverts are all edged with silvery gray. The rump and tail are lighter than in the 

 smaller bird, and the primaries a paler brown. The ear-coverts of ptilocnemis are dusky brown with 

 a dark shade extending thence forward under the eye to the lores, but rarely reaching the gape 

 even by shading. The base of bill is entirely surrounded by white, which occupies a large area 

 on the throat and sides of upper neck, and thence down the breast and entire abdomen, only broken 

 by a scattered pectoral band of dark penciling produced by the dark centers to the feathers. 

 This changes on lower breast to an ill-deflned area of dingy blackish-brown, shaded with gray- 

 ish and fuscous in some instances. In some specimens this dark area is divided into a spot on 

 either side imperfectly separated, or forms an unbroken patch, but in any case it is much lighter in 

 color and less extended than in couesi. The dark shaft streaks on flanks are nearly obsolete. 



Tbinga acuminata (Horsf.). Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. 



On September 16, 1877, near Saiut Michaels, I had the pleasure of securing a handscfme young 

 female of this bird, thus adding the species to our fauna. The bird was shot on the muddy bank 

 of a tide-creek as I, was passing in a kyak. Later in the season others were seen, and during each 

 of the three succeeding autumns they were found to be one of the most common species of snipe 

 about Saint Michaels, frequenting the borders of brackish pools and tide-creeks, in company with 

 T. maculata, the Eed-breasted Snipe, and several other species. 



They were nearly always associated with maculata, whose habits they shared to a great ex<teut. 

 When congregated about their feeding places they united into flocks of from ten into fifty, but single 

 birds were frequently flushed from grassy spots. Their motions on the wing are very similar to 

 those of the latter, and they were rarely shy. On October 1, 1880, they were found scattered singly 

 over the marsh, and arose 30 to 40 yards in advance, and made off with a twisting flight, uttering 

 at the same time a short, soft, metallic "^foep," ".pteep," and, pursuing an erratic, circuitous flight 

 for a time, they generally returned and settled near the spot whence they started. 



A single bird taken at Port Clarence, Bering Straits, September 9, by Bean, is the only instance 

 of its occurrence there. On the Commander Islands it occurs during the migrations. I do not 

 think the bird breeds on the American side. 



On the north shore of Siberia, near North Cape, we found these birds very common, scattered 

 over damp gra.ss flats near the coast, the Ist of August, 1881. The ground was covered with 



