408 THE PUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



Mr. Elliott is of special interest and importance, since it is conclusively determined 

 to be tlie true Asiatic fulvus and not the North American var. virginicus." — (Goues.) 

 I saw but one. It was alone in the grass of the village pond on St. Paul. "A few 

 stragglers land in April, or early in May, on their way north to breed, but never 

 remain long. They return in greater number in the latter part of September, and 

 grow fat upon the larvae generated on the killing grounds, leaving for the south by 

 the end of October." — [Elliott.) Coinde says of Mr. Warneck's specimens: "Three 

 examples of this species have been given me exactly identical with individuals that 

 we find in Europe. They had been killed in the port of St. Paul the 18th and 20th of 

 April, 1852." In the male the black of the under parts has a few white old worn 

 feathers in the center of the breast and a few on the throat; the female has some few 

 new black feathers mixed in with the old plumage on the breast. Both specimens are 

 unchanged otherwise, and the feathers are well worn on the back and wings. No 

 molting feathers are to be found on the birds. No. 64273, ad. ? , May 1, 1873, St. Paul, 

 H. W. B. Wing, 6.37; tarsus, 1.70. No. 119085, ad. S , June 12, 1890, St. Paul, W. P. 

 Length, 9.75; extent, 21.75; wing,6.50; culmen,0.93; tarsus, 1.78. Stomach contents: 

 "Ten predaceous beetles {Garabidae) and seeds of crowberry (Empetrum nigrum).''^ — 

 S. I). J. 



ST. Aegialitis setaipalmata Bonap. Semipalmated Plover. 



Aegialeiis semipalmatua, Shahpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. XXIV, 1896, 250. 



Aegialiiia semipalmata, A. 0. U. Ch. List, 1895, 100. — Ridgway, Man. 1896, 176. 



Aelgialiiis'i semipalmatns, Coues, Key, 1890, 602. 



I saw none, nor did Mr. Elliott. Mr. D. W. Prentiss, jr., secured one in very worn 

 plumage from a flock at Northeast Point. No. 153543, ad. 2 , July 6, 1895, St. Paul, 

 D. W. P.,jr. Wing, 4,70; culmen, 0.40; tarsus, 0.87. 



Family ARENARIIDAE. Turnstones. 

 Genus ABEITABIA. 



Oenus characters, — Nonpalmate hind-toe shore birds of moderate size, about 11 

 inches long; culmen, shorter than head or tarsus; bill, hard, gently tapering from a 

 stoutish base and with a slightly upward trend toward tip; black or blackish across 

 breast and shoulders; under parts and upper and middle back wliite; tail coverts 

 white; tail, white, with apical half broadly banded with black or blackish; axillaries, 

 white; feet and tarsi, robust; midtoe little shorter than tarsus; tarsi, regularly and 

 broadly scaled in front, smaller scaled and reticulated behind. 



GEOGRAPHICAI^ DISTKIUUTION OF THE SPECIES. 



Europe, Asia, Africa and Paciiio islands. Western Alaska from tbe Aleutians to Point Barrow Green- 

 land. Breeds from Japan and Alaska westward around to the more nortbern British islands, 

 Azores ( ?), and Greenland .'. ^_ inierprea. 



America from the Arctic regions north of Hudson Bay and westward to the Mackenzie River, alon" 

 the Atlantic watershed, though generally coastwise, to Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. 

 Rare on the Pacific slope. Breeds ahout Hudson Bay, northward and eastward.. A.morinella. 



Western Alaska from the Arctic Ocean to and through California. Breeds in northwestern Alaska. 



A. melanocephala. 



