404 



THE FUR SEALS OF THE PBIBILOF ISLANDS. 



blackest breasted specimen is a female. A glauce at the measurements will show 

 that the female is rather the largest and always has a longer bill. 



The eggs have rarely been collected. They were described by Dr. Coues in 

 Elliott's reports for 1873 and 1875, and the specimens — a set of four — are in the collec- 

 tion of the National Museum, No. 16767, June 19, 1873, St. George Island, H. W. 

 Elliott and George K. Adams. "The ground is nearly clay color, but with an appre- 

 ciable olivaceous shade. The markings are large, bold, and numerous, of rich burnt- 

 umber brown of varying depth, according to the quantity of the pigment. These 

 surface markings occur all over the shell, except the extreme point, and are solidly 

 massed by confluence on the larger half of the egg. All the markings are strong, as if 

 laid on freely with a heavily charged brush. With these surface spots occur numerous 

 shell markings of the same character, but of course obscure, presenting a stone-gray 

 or purplish-gray shade. Some of them look as if the color of the surface spots had 

 'run' and soaked into the olivaceous drab of the general surface." — (Goues.) These 

 eggs measure 1.55 by 1.08, 1.52 by 1.05, 1.50 by 1.08, 1.48 by 1.05. Another set of four 

 was taken on St. Paul, July 6, 1895, by Messrs. True and Prentiss, and are now in the 

 National Museum collection. Stomach contents : "The Pribilof sandpipers had taken 

 predaceous beetles ( Carabidae), but had also caught parasitic wasps and a fly." — S.B. J. 



44. Tringa maculata Vieill. Pectoral Sandpipei'. 



A[etodromu,s'] maculata, CouES, Key, 1892, 626. 



Seteropygia maculata, Shaupe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. XXIV, 1896, 562. 



Tringa maculata, A. 0. U. Ch. List, 1895, 88.— Ridgway, Man. 1896, 156. 



Directly east of the village of St. Paul and but a few yards from it lies a shallow 

 and irregular pond, a favorite resting and feeding place for migrating birds. I 

 generally made an early morning visit to this pond, and was frequently rewarded 

 with desirable specimens. The morning of June lii I was especially fortunate, 

 obtaining three species which I did not see at other times, two being new to the 

 islands. On a little grassy islet I flushed and secured two females of this species, in 

 company with a semijiabnated sandpiper. There are few instances of the capture of 

 this species in the Pacific, though according to Nelson and Murdock it is abundant 

 from the mouth of the Yukon to Point Barrow. Nos. 118833, 118834, 5 9 , June 12, 

 1890, St. Paul, W. P. Length, 8.25; extent, 16.55; wing, 5.10; tail, 2.22; tarsus, 1.10; 

 culmeu, 1.15. Stomach contents, two specimens: "These birds had eaten predaceous 

 beetles (Carabidae) and pupae." — 8. B. J, 



