Shore-bird Shooting 365 



While most common along the coast, it is 

 found through the Great Lake region and has 

 even occurred in Missouri. It is not found on 

 the Pacific Coast. 



ALEUTIAN SANDPIPER 

 {Tringa ptilocnemis couesi) 1 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage — • Above, slate, the 

 feathers of the dorsal region widely bordered with bright cinna- 

 mon, in the centre, black ; wing-coverts, bordered with white ; 

 greater coverts tipped with white, forming a bar across the 

 wing; rump, upper tail-coverts, and middle tail feathers, dusky; 

 a white superciliary stripe extending to the back of the neck ; 

 neck, jugulum, and breast, grayish white, or buff, spotted with 

 slate ; remaining lower parts, pure white ; iris, brown ; bill, legs, 

 and feet, greenish yellow ; end of bill, dark. 



Adult male and female in winter plumage — Above, soft smoky gray, 

 with a purplish gloss ; scapulars and interscapulars, bordered 

 with slate; head and neck, uniform plumbeous, except the 

 throat, which is streaked with white ; jugulum, scaled with white ; 

 breast more broadly marked in a similar way. 



Young — Scapulars, interscapulars, and crown, black, bordered 

 broadly with brown or buff; jugulum and breast, pale buff or 

 buffy white, streaked with dusky. 



Downy young — Similar to T. maritima, but more rufous above, 

 becoming light fulvous on head ; white markings larger ; sides 

 tinged with fulvous. 



Measurements — Length, 8 inches; wing, s inches; oilmen, 1.25 

 inches ; tarsus, 1 inch. 



Eggs — Pale olive-buff, spotted with umber-brown; measure 1.46 by 

 1 inches. 



1 A series of sixty-three specimens, almost all young birds, which 

 I collected at St. Michael, Alaska, and Unalaska, in September and 

 early October, 1899, show a complete intergradation, both in size and 

 color, from birds thoroughly typical of T. couesi to others indistin- 

 guishable from T. ptilocnemis taken in the Pribilofs. — L. B. B. 



