Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper in Alexander Archipelago, Southeastern Alaska
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in Alexander Archipelago, Southeastern Alaska.-The Sharptailed Sandpiper, an Asiatic species known as a late summer and fall visitant to the northwestern coast of Alaska, has not been reported previously from Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska. There are, however, records of occurrence at Valdez Narrows, Alaska (Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., 5, 1910:375), along the coast-line in British Columbia (Munro and Cowan, B. C. Prov. Mus. Special Publ. No. 2, 1947:108), Nooksack River, Washington (Bent, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. No. 142, 1927: 169)) and San Diego, California (Anthony, Auk, 39, 1922 : 106).
While I was hunting ducks on the marsh at Fish Creek, Douglas Island, Alaska, on October 26, 1949, I flushed a sandpiper from the tall grass. This bird uttered no sound as it flew. I collected the bird, which Herbert Friedmann diagnosed as an adult male Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Erolio acuminata) . Had this bird escaped, I would have recorded its presence as a Pectoral Sandpiper, but once in hand it was found to differ both in size and coloration from that species.
From previous records on the occurrence of the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper along the Pacific coast of North America, one would expect to encounter this species casually on the outer islands of Alexander Archipelago, although, the specimen under discussion was collected on a salt-water marsh adjacent to the mainland.
I am indebted to Herbert Friedmann of the United States National Museum for his identification of the specimen which is now in the collections of that institution.-RALPH B. WILLIAMS, Juneau, Alaska, January 25, 1950.
