BIRDS. 



109 



The skin of the throat and breast becomes very flabby and loose at this season, and its inner 

 surface is covered with small globular masses of fat. When not inflated, the skin loaded with this 

 extra weight and with a slight serous suffusion which is iwesent hangs down in a pendulous flap 

 .or fold exactly like a dewlap, about an inch and a half wide. The sesophagus is very loose and 

 becomes remarkably soft and distensible, but is easily ruptured in this state, as I found by dissec- 

 tion. In the plate accompanying this report-the extent and character of this inflation, unique at 

 least among American waders, is shown. The bird may frequently be seen running along the 

 ground close to the female, its enormous sac inflated, and its head drawn back and. the bill pointing 

 directly forward, or', filled with spring-time vigor, the bird flits with slow but energetic wing-strokes 

 close along the ground, its head raised high over the shoulders and the tail hanging almost directly 

 down. As it thus flies it utters a succession of the hollow booming notes, which have a strange 

 ventriloquial quality. At times the male rises 20 or 30 yards in the air and inflating its throat 

 glides down to the ground with its sac hanging below, as is shown in the accompanying plate 

 Again he crosses back and forth in front of the female, puffing his breast out and bowing from 

 side to side, running here and there, as if intoxicated with passion. Whenever he pursues his 

 love-making, his rather low but pervading note swells and dies in musical cadences, which form a 

 striking part of the great bird chorus heard at this season in the north. 



The Eskimo name indicates that its notes are like those of the walrus, hence the term " walrus 

 talker." Since my return from the north my attention has been called to a note in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Zoological Society of Loudon (1859, p. 130), where it appears that Dr. Adams noted 

 the i^eculiar habits of this bird years ago when he passed a season at Saint Michaels. These Sand- 

 pipers were beginning to nest when I left the Yukon mouth, and in one instance a female was seen 

 engaged in preparing a place for her eggs in a tuft of grass, but the spot was afterwards abandoned. 

 The nests taken by Mr. Murdoch each contained four eggs of the usual pyriform shape. They vary 

 in size as follows : 1.58 by 1.06 ; 1.44 by 1.11 : 1.42 by 1.08 ; 1.54 by 1.02 inches. They have a drab 

 ground color, with a greenish shade in some cases, and are spotted and blotched with umber-brown, 

 varying in distribution on different specimens, as is usual among waders' eggs. In autumn its 

 habits in the north are precisely those so familiar to all who know the bird in its southern haunts. 



The young birds in fall have the feathers of crown and entire upper parts edged with rusty 

 and buff; some of the feathers have white tips which, although generally duller and less marked 

 than in the ordinary acuminata, renders it very difficult to distinguish the birds by this character 

 alone. The larger bill and broad pectoral band of shaft markings and brown form the two most 

 distinct charg,cters. 



For the purpose of comparison with acuminata I append the following list ai measurements 

 of five specimens of maculata from Saint Michaels: 



TRiNaA FUSCICOLLIS Vieill. White-rumped Sandpiper. 



Rare at Point Barrew, where Murdoch took two specimens. It breeds abundantly in the 

 Mackenzie River region, but the present record is the first wo have of its presence in Western 

 Alaska. 



Teinga BAiRDii (Ooues). Baird's Sandpiper. 



A single specimen of this species, a young bird in its first plumage, brought me in August, 

 1877, is the only instance known to rae of its occurrence at Saint Michaels during my residence 

 there. 



