1908.] 



BIRDS. 



323 



eral were seen and one Avas taken about 50 miles north of Edmonton 

 May 14. 



On May IT, in the spring of 1904, at Fort Simpson, I took a soli- 

 tary individual, the first one observed. The species was next seen 

 May 22, was common May 27, and was several times noted during the 

 lattei^-clays of May. I usually saw them in company with the larger 

 sandpipers about the grassy margin of a small pond. On my return 

 trip I saw a small flock on the Athabaska below Brule Kapid Au- 

 gust 19. 



On May 15, 1905, J. W. Mills took three specimens, all of which 

 proved to be males, at Fort Providence. First recorded from this 

 region by Ross, who took it at Fort Simpson;" and the bird cata- 

 logue of the National Museum shows that specimens were afterwards 

 received from Isle a la Crosse, Fort Eesolution, Big Island, and Great 

 Bear Lake. Baird. Brewer, and Ridgway state that it Avas found 

 breeding abundantly at Fort Anderr^on ; on the Barren Grounds [to the 

 eastward] ; at Rendezvous Lake ; and near the Arctic coast [Frank- 

 lin Bay] ; and that nests were found betAveen June 21 and July 3 ; a 

 set of eggs are described.^ A skin from Big Island; one from Fort 

 Resolution, taken May 19, 1860, by Kennicott; and one from near 

 RendezA'ous Lake, taken in J une, 1864, by MacFarlane, and labeled as 

 having been collected '* Avith 3 eggs,'' are noAv in the National Museum. 

 Three eggs taken by Collinson at Cambridge Bay, Victoria Land, 

 are in the British Museum.^ 



Pelidna alpina sakhalina (VieilL). Red-backed Sandpiper. 



This bird Avas recorded by EdAvard Sabine, under the name Tringa 

 variabilis, as being rare in the islands of the Polar Sea, Melville 

 Island being referred to particularly.'^ Reed records eggs taken at 

 Peel RiA^er, Arctic America, June 30, 1899, by I. O. Stringer.^ J. C. 

 Ross recorded the species as breeding abundantly at Felix Harbor.^ 

 Walker noted a few breeding at Port Kennedy in July, 1859.^ 



Ereunetes pusillus (Linn.). Semipalmated Sandpiper. 



This tiny sandpiper, closely resembling the least sandpiper super- 

 ficially, but readily distinguished from it by the slight webbing of 

 the toes, is a rather common migrant through the region. It breeds 

 on the Barren Grounds. 



In the spring of 1901 a feAv Avere seen on the Quatre Fourches 

 marsh, near Fort Chipewyan, May 24. The species Avas not again 



«Nat. Hist. Rev., II (second ser.), p. 285, 1862. 

 ^ A;Vater Birds N. A., I, p. 240, 1884. 



Gates, Cat. Birds' Eggs Brit. Mus., II, p. 53, 1902. 

 ^ Suppl. to Appendix Parry's First Voyage, p. cc, 1824. 

 ^ N. A. Birds' Eggs, p. 116, 1904. 

 f Appendix Ross's Second A^oyage, p. xxxii, 1835. 

 f Proc. Roy. Soc, Dublin, III, p. 63, 1860. 



