BIRDS. 1 07 



reindeer tracks, and among these the Sharp-tailed Snipe were seen seeking their food. They were 

 very iinsuspicious, and allowed us to pass close to them, or circled close about us. From their 

 movements, and other circumstances, I judged that this district formed part of their breeding 

 grounds, whence they reach the neighboring coast of Alaska in fall. 



They usually make their first appearance on the shore of Norton Sound the last of August, 

 and in a few days become very common. They sometimes remain up to the 12th of October, and 

 I have seen them searching for food along the tide-line when the ground was covered with 2 

 inches of snow. When feeding along the edges of the tide-creeks they may almost be knocked 

 over with a paddle, and when a flock is fired into it returns again and again. Its exact range is 

 still undetermined, but it is known to cover the east coast of Asia and adjacent islands. 



The 1st of September, 1880, Oapt. C. L. Hooper, of the United States steamer Corwin, took 

 a single specimen within the Arctic Circle at Hotham Inlet, Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, making the 

 farthest northern record yet known, and on the 9th of September, the same season, Dr. T. H. 

 Bean took a second specimen at Port Clarence, Bering Straits, and these, with the large number 

 of specimens taken at Saint Michaels by the writer, complete the American history of this bird 

 up to the present time. 



Description of fall specimens. — Iris hazel; bill black at tip, changing to dull greenish-yellow or 

 dirty horn color on basal third of lower mandible. The basal portion of the upper mandible lighter 

 than outer part and dull greenish-yellow in some specimens. Feet and tarsus greenish-yellow, 

 rather dull. Twenty specimens measured in the flesh ranged from ?>^ to 9^ inches in length by 16 

 to 18 inches in extent of wing. 



The general pattern of coloration in this bird is very much like that of T. maculata, but 

 acuminata may be distinguished at a glance by the rich buff and rufous shading and markings. 

 The feathers of the crown have broad black shaft-lines with borders of bright rusty. On the 

 back of the neck the black shaft-lines persist, but are bordered with dull rusty fulvous brown. 

 On the back, scapulars, and tertials the black central part of feathers are proportionately larger, 

 and the edgings are lighter colored than on crown. The edges of dorsal feathers are rusty red, 

 dull, and shaded with buffy, and the scapulars and a portion of the tertials are tipped with white. 

 The edgings of scapulars and tertials are a bright dark rusty red, approaching the shade of the 

 crown, but lighter. The rump, upper tail-coverts, and inner tail-feathers are blackish-brown, 

 edged with rusty red, shading through fulvous to white on the outer tail-feather. Wing-coverts 

 pale-brown, heavily bordered with jjale fulvous brown and yellowish-white. Primaries dark-brown. 

 Chin and upper throat occupied by an area of dingy white. Extending across the throat, jnst 

 below this area is a heavily buff shaded collar extending over the entire breast. The dark shaft- 

 lines of feathers on the sides of the neck extend across the throat below in a series of fine pencil- 

 ings, which never extend down over the breast, as in maculata, nor are they so heavy as the mark- 

 ings on the breast of the latter bird. A dull buffy or yellowish brown wash extends along the 

 sides and tinges all the lower surface. There is considerable variation in the intensitj^ of the bright 

 rusty-red edgings on the crown and back, but the color does not approximate the dingy brown- 

 ish or buffy yellow of maculata. Tliere is a distinct whitish superciliary stripe finely penciled with 

 black, and the dingy white of sides of head and cheeks is thickly penciled by fine dark shaft-lines. 

 TLe breeding plumage of this bird differs from its autumnal dress. 



An adult male in the National Museum collection obtained at Sydnej^, Australia, November IG, 

 1871, by J. E. Harting, differs much from fall birds from Alaska, as the following description will 

 show: Feathers of the crown with a dull black shaft-line occupying half the feather and reaching 

 the tip. Along each side of this is a broad border of dull rusty red. The entire back of neck, 

 dorsum, scapulars, tertials, and wing-coverts have blackish or dark-brown centers, each feather 

 broadly bordered with ashy-brown, producing a pattern and coloration which may be almost dupli- 

 cated in dull-colored breeding females of maculata, the principal difference being the larger 

 size of the dark centers to feathers on the nape and the lighter color of the ashy edging in acuminata. 

 As in the fall specimens, the pectoral band is much narrower than in maculata and in the adult male 

 consists of a pale dingy or buffy brown shade, with a few scattered dark shaft-lines mainly on each 

 side of the neck from the base of bill to the breast, the side of head and neck thus appearing 

 very similar to .that of maculata. 



