Kidgway on a new Alaskan Sandpiper. 161 
with white ; greater coverts widely tipped with white, forming a conspicu- 
ous bar across* the wing ; three or four of the inner secondaries chiefly 
white, the others, also the inner primaries, narrowly skirted and tipped 
with white. Rump, upper tail-coverts, and middle tail-feathers, uniform 
fuliginous-dusky, the remaining rectrices paler, or dull cinereous. A con- 
spicuous whitish superciliary stripe, extending back to the nape, and con- 
fluent with the dull whitish of the under side of the head, thus posteriorly 
bounding a large sooty-brown auricular area ; anterior portion of the lores, 
with the forehead, dull smoky-grayish ; neck, jugulum, and breast, dirty 
whitish (sometimes soiled with dingy buff), and clouded or spotted with 
dull slate, sooty plumbeous, or dusky black, this sometimes forming a 
large patch on each side of the breast ; remaining lower parts pure white, 
the sides with chain-like series of brownish slaty spots mixed with streaks, 
the crissum streaked with dusky ; lining of the wing pure white, the bor- 
der brownish gray. Bill, legs, and feet brownish black in the dried skin ; 
iris brown. Winter plumage : Above soft smoky plumbeous, the scapu- 
lars and interscapulars glossy purplish dusky centrally, the plumbeous 
borders to the feathers causing a squamate appearance ; head and neck 
uniform plumbeous, except the throat and a supraloral patch, which are 
streaked whitish ; jugulum squamated with white, the breast similarly but 
more broadly marked. Wings, etc., as in summer. Young , first plumage : 
Scapulars and interscapulars black, broadly bordered with bright rusty 
and buffy white, the latter chiefly on the longer and outer scapulars and 
posterior part of the back ; wing-coverts broadly bordered with buffy 
white ; pileum streaked black and ochraceous ; jugulum and breast pale 
buff, or buffy white, streaked with dusky. Downy young : Above bright 
rusty fulvous, irregularly mottled with black, the back, wings, and rump 
ornamented by yellowish- white downy flecks or papillae ; head above deep 
fulvous brown, with a longitudinal stripe of velvety black from the fore- 
head to the occiput, where confluent with a cross band of the same, the 
lores with two nearly parallel longitudinal streaks of black ; there are 
also other, rather indefinite, black markings, chiefly on the superciliary 
and occipital regions. Lower parts white, becoming distinctly fulvous 
laterally. 
Wing, 4.50-5.15 (4.86) inches; culmen, 0.98- 1.25 (1.13); tarsus, 
0.88 - 1.00 (0.95) ; middle toe, 0.78 - 0.90 (0. 86). (Extreme and average 
measurements of 14 adults.) 
Hab. — Aleutian Islands and coast of Alaska, north to St. Michael’s. 
The present species is closely allied to Arquatella maritima 
(Briinn.), and can scarcely be distinguished in its winter plumage. 
A close comparison, however, shows that in this livery A. couesi has 
decidedly less of the purple gloss to the dorsal region, where the 
plumbeous borders to the feathers are both broader and paler ; 
VOL. v. 11 
