BIEDS. 115 



Eump dark ashy brown, darkest on the upper tail-coverts. Sides of head, neck, and a broad pectoral 

 band dull smoky gray, the same smoky shade extending over the sides and abdomen as a pale 

 wash. I. . 



A downy young taken near Saint Michaels in June has the middle of crown and of dorsum 

 velvety blackish surrounded by the dark buff of the rest of upper surface. A few scattered spots of 

 blackish are seen elsewhere on the back, but are very limited. Many of the long hair-like feathers 

 on the back are tipped -with light yellowi^i white. Chin, throat, breast, and abdomen dull white, 

 washed with buff on the breast. 



Oalidris arenaeia (Linn.). Sanderling. 



The only record of this -widely spread species from Alaska is that of Mr. Dall, who informs 

 us that it is "very common at Nulato and on the Yukon to the sea." At lUTulato he noted its 

 arrival from May 10 to 15, and it passed south late in fall. He saw them at the edge of the ice on 

 the river in October apparently quite at home. 



It has been taken repeatedly io spring and fall on the coasts of Japan and China, and is a rare 

 migrant on the Commander Islands. Several specimens are in the National Museum collection 

 obtained at Sitka during the migrations, but during the entire time spent by me in the north I 

 did not see a single individual, although I looked for them each spring and fall. 



During Parry's first expedition the Sanderlings were found nesting on the north Georgian 

 Islands, and it undoubtedly breeds along the barren Arctic shore of the North Alaskan coast 

 east of Point Barrow, but not in any numbers to the south of this point, as my observations during 

 the summer of 1881 show. It is found wintering in low latitudes on both coasts of the Pacific, 

 but is rather rare on the shores of India. 



LiMOSA LAPPONJCCA BAUEEi (Naum.). Pacific Godwit (Esk. Tu-gu-tu-guult). 



This bird was added to our fannal list by the naturalists of the Telegraph Expedition. Dall 

 found it plentiful about the Yukon mouth, and informs us that it lays " two light olivaceous spotted 

 eggs in a rounded depression in a sedge tussock, lined with dry grass." The same author found 

 a single specimen on an islet in Akoutan Pass near Unalaska, June 2, 1872, and, again the 9th ot 

 June at Unalaska, where he states that it breeds. West of this place in the Aleutian chain it was 

 not observed by him. Murdoch foand it to be an occasional summer visitor at Point Barrow. It 

 occurs on the Commander Islands during the migrations. 



Although this is a well known species of Eastern Asia, breeding as far north as 75° and win- 

 tering in Southeastern Asia, Australia, and Polynesia, our knowledge of it as an American bird 

 is very limited, the summary of Mr. Dall's work just given, and Elliott's statement that it passes 

 north in a straggling manner over the Seal Islands early in May, returning south in flocks of a 

 dozen to fifty toward the end of August, comprising it all. 



This is one of the species figured in Dall and Bannister's paper in the Chicago Academy Trans- 

 actions, and is described by Professor Baird under the name of Limosa uropyglalis Gould, in the 

 same paper. On May 26, 1877, while I was at Unalaska, a native brought in a half dozen of these 

 birds, and on June 3 I obtained three others from the sandy beach of a small inner bay. They 

 were very unsuspicious and easily killed. Although these birds appeared to be migrating, yet the 

 following years I found them arriving at Saint Michaels in flocks of from twenty-five to two hun- 

 dred from the 13th to 20th of May. These flocks were shy and kept in continual motion, 

 wheeling and circling in rapid flight over the low land, now alighting for a moment then skimming 

 away again in a close body. 



Their movements and habits at tliis season are similar to those of other Godwits. By the last 

 of May the flocks are broken up, and the birds are distributed in small parties over their breeding 

 ground. Their courtship begins by the 18th or 20th of May, and is carried on in such a loud- 

 voiced manner that every creature in the neighborhood knows all about it. The males continually 

 utter a loud ringing Icu-wSw, Jm-wew, M-ioSio, which is repeated with great, emphasis upon the last 

 syllable, and the note may be heard for several hundred yards. 



