182 ALASKA. 



"Though much moreabundantthan the preceding, at certain 

 times, I am satisfied that the red phalarope does uot breed here. 

 It is found, like the other, by the marshy margins of the lake- 

 lets, solitary or paired, but never in flocks. The earliest arrivals 

 occur in June, but the birds re-appear in greatest number about 

 the 15th of August. They all leave by the 5th of October." 



426 Us. Ti'inga crassirostris, Temm. et Schlegel. — ThicTc-hilkd Sand- 

 jnjjer. " Ko-lits-kie." 

 Trirxja crassirostris, Tejim. et Schlegel. Fauna Japonica, 107, 

 pi. 64, (1846.) (?)— Dall. Amer. Naturalist, vii, 635, (Oct., 

 1873.)— COUES. Check-List, 85, No. 426 his, (1873.) 



• The most interesting result, in some respects, of Mr. Elliott's 

 ornithological researches is the determination of the occur- 

 rence of this species in abundance on the Prybilov Islands, 

 where it breeds. This discovery adds a species, previously un- 

 recognized as North American, to our Fauna. The announce- 

 ment was lately made by Mr. W. H. Dall, as above, upon the 

 strength of one of Mr. Elliott's earlier specimens from Saint 

 Paul's. This example was identified by Mr. J. E. Harting,* of 

 London, well known for the extent and accuracy of his investi- 

 gations of the Limicoline groups, to whom it was transmitted 

 for the purpose by the Smithsonian Institution. Mr. Elliott's 

 later collections contain numerous specimens, among them sev- 

 eral newly-hatched joung, hitherto ijrobably unknown. No 

 description of the species having been x)ublished in this country, 

 we subjoin the following : 



Adult, in breeding plumage. (Xo. G4249, Mus. S. I. — 676, Coll. 

 H. W. E.— July 22, 1873. Saint George's.)— With somewhat 

 the general appearance of a Tringa alpina, but the black area on 

 the under parts pectoral, not abdominal. Bill about as long as 

 the head, straight to the end,t compressed, stout, and high at 



* Deferring to this excellent authority ou Limicoline birds, and without 

 a copy of the ivork in which Tringa crassirostris was originally described, 

 at hand, we have presented it under the same name. But almost cer- 

 tainly it is not the bird described by Schlegel as Tringa crassirostris in the 

 Museum des Pays-Bas. The characters there given are those of a different 

 bird altogether. By no latitude of interpretation can they be rendered 

 applicable to the present species. In case our bird, here described in de- 

 tail, be found not the same as the true Tringa crassirostris, it may appro- 

 priately be named T. ptilocnemis, in allusion to the feathered tibiee. We 

 consider it most nearly allied to Tringa maritima, next to which it may 

 take its place in the system. 



t In other specimens, and usually, the bill isc onsiderably longer, exceed- 

 ing the head, and decidedly decurved at the end. 



