416 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



similar one to that considered under Limosa} But as these birds have less of an 

 ocean journey and of course have frequent stoppages, greater progress has been made 

 in the changes of the plumage of the males, the less masterful spirit of the females 

 tending to prevent the evolution of their plumage. Among the Limicolae we find 

 numerous gradations of plumage change from the species which makes an almost 

 complete spring molt to others where the change is slight and confined to a few colored 

 feathers. Evidently such changes are purely psychological, but modified by many 

 causes, chief among which is the distance to which the winter habitat extends and the 

 retardation or prevention of change caused by the return journey. 



Several immature birds that I collected on Smiths Island, Virginia, in September, 

 1897, were just beginning to molt from the worn first plumage into the winter dress. 

 No adults were to be seen, and it would seem probable that all wintering birds in the 

 United States are immature birds. The material from the west coast of South America 

 that 1 have examined consists of five specimens, two from the Galapagos Islands, two 

 from Chile, and one from Peru. They are in differing degrees of change and plumage, 

 though mostly in winter dress. The Galapagos birds are referable to ititerpres, the 

 coast birds to morinella. 



The name Tringa morinella of Liniiaeus is based primarily on Mark Oatesby's 

 plate 72. The specimen figured is most evidently an adult female,^ and, as Oatesby 

 remarks, was taken alive on board his ship while off the coast of Florida. The 

 picture is defective in fine detail drawing of the feathering, but as a whole it is very 

 well done, a credit to the time and artist. In his letterpress Oatesby tells us : 



All the Upper-part of the Body is brown, with a Mixture of White and black. The Quill- 

 Feathers of the Wings are dark brown; the Neck and Breast black; the Legs and Feet light red. In 

 a Voyage to America, Anno 1722, in 31 Deg. N. Lat. and 40 Leagues from the Coast of Florida, the Bird 

 from which this was figur'd flew on Board us and was taken. It was very active in turning up 

 Stones, which we put into its Cage, but not finding, under them the usual Food, it died. 



In the figure the wing is 5 inches, the bill 0.90, but the tarsus is 1.37 — evidently 

 guesswork. MuUer's name of hudsonica ten years later was based on Edward's 

 "The Turn-Stone from Hudson's Bay," which was a specimen collected by Mr. Isham. 

 Edward's elaborate description, and his generally excellent plate, evidently fits our 

 male bird very well. He says first: " This bird is here figured of its natural bigness." 

 (Wing, in figure, 5.40; bill, 0.72; tarsus, 1.05.) At the close of his remarks he says: 

 " The Turn-Stone is also found on the western coasts of England, * * * but as 

 Willoughby's and Catesby's differ from each other, and mine widely from them both, 

 1 believe them to be distinct species. The above-described at least from its great 

 difference I must pronounce a nondescript. It agrees very nearly in size, shape of 

 body, and parts with the Turn-Stone found with us [viz, in England], but differs very 

 greatly in color." In his plate he figures and in his description he tells us of the 

 black collar. I have only found one specimen (No. 572, E. J. Brown collection, Smith's 

 Island), which has a full black collar; but several others approach it. 



It may be held by some that the differences between interpres and morinella are 

 but subspecific, but I can not agree with that, for the difference in their lines of 



' Late summer adult birds taken in the United States show no molting, but a specimen. No. 151635, 

 Margarita Island, off Venezuela, July 7, 1895, Lieut. Wirt Robinson, is an adult female, though not 

 sexed, changing to the winter plumage. As others were seen it is probably m. nonbreeding bird that 

 failed to reach its arctic home. 



'' Not a young, as usually considered by authors. 



