Additional Records from Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska
Additional Records from Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska
Several interesting specimens were collected during the past season near Wales, Alaska, by Dwight Tevuk, the representative of the Chicago Academy of Sciences at that place. A breeding record of the Red-throated Pipit was established, with an adult bird, the fourth from North America, taken to substantiate the identiiication; in addition, a pair of Green-throated Loons (with eggs), and a Dotterel, the third from this point, were secured.
The skins, and the eggs of the pipit, are in the Academy collection, while the eggs of the Green-throated Loon are in the collection of W. C. Hanna, of Colton, California. The data for the skins are as follows:
C. A. S. 5676 Anthus cervinus ♀ Wales, Alaska, June 29,1931
C. A. S. 6123 Eudromias morinellus ♀ Wales, Alaska, June 6,1931
C. A. S. 6191 Gavia arctica viridigularis ♀ Wales, Alaska, June 29,1931
C. A. S. 6192 Gavina arctica viridigularis Wales, Alaska, June 23,1931
The nest and eggs of the Pipit (C. A. S. no. 460) were taken June 29, 1931, near Wales, Alaska, “up in the hills on nigger-head”, the nest evidently having been concealed in moss and short grass, in a typical manner. The nest is composed throughout of fine, light brown, hairlike, long grasses, save that the rim is of coarser and, apparently, more weathered blades and stalks. The outside diameter of the nest measures 3% inches and the inside 2% inches. while the depth outside is 2 ¼. and inside 7/8.
The four eggs are.somewhat dull, resembling lighter types of Bobolinks ’ eggs. The ground color is a light drab, indeterminately washed or blurred with grayish brown, these markings appearing irregularly in heavier, darker spots, as usually in specimens of eggs of the Vesper Sparrow. The eggs measure in millimeters: 20.8 x 15.4; 20.9 x 16.2; 20.7 x 15.2; 20.6 x 15.2.
The preparation indicates that incubation was not far advanced. There are only three previous records of the Red-throated Pipit from North America, according to the Fourth Edition of the A. 0. U. Check-List (St. Michael, 1867, Aleutian Islands at an earlier date, and Lower California, January 26, 1883).
The Dotterel is the third from Wales, the other two having been taken June 15 and 19, 1929 (Condor, XXXII, 1930, p. 161).
Several sets of eggs, with the nesting Green-throated Loons, have been taken at Wales within the last few years, so the form is well established as a breeding bird of the western coast of Alaska. They nest on the same ponds with Gavia arctica pacifica, but in the specimens I have examined I have failed to find signs of intergradation.
I am indebted to Mr. Outram Bangs, who identified the above specimens, and to Mr. E. R. Ford for his description of the nest and eggs of the Red-throated Pipit.
Alfred M. Bailey
The Chicago Academy of Sciences, November 1, 1931
