Limonites Ruficollis in Alaska
Limonites ruficollis in Alaska
I have bought from time to time a good many bird-skins of Mr. A. H. Dunham, of Nome, Alaska. He usually spends his winters in his old home at New Haven, Conn., leaving Alaska early in the autumn. He has on several occasions brought back with him a number of rather rare birds, such as the Kittlitz Murrelet, Emperor Goose, Spectacled Eider, etc.
On his last trip he had a large number of skins, some rare ones and some of little interest. Among the lot were a pair of Sandpipers and two of their young, which he had shot at Nome, July 10, 1908. He "threw these in" with the other birds I bought, saying, that he "remembered my telling him to collect a few nestlings." The skin of the female was such a miserable, greasy thing and so wretchedly made (most of Dunham's skins are very poor) that I threw it away without examining it. On looking over these Alaskan skins one day, I found that I couldn't make out what this Sandpiper was. I sent the remaining adult skin to Mr. Outram Bangs, who sent it to Professor Ridgway, who identified it as Limonites ruficollis.
This is, I think, the first record of this bird being taken in Alaska, and that it bred there is also interesting.
JOHN THAYER
Lancaster, Mass.
