Records of the black turnstone Arenaria melanocephala in Russia

For a long time there was no unity about listing of the black turnsone Arenaria melanocephala in the bird fauna of the former USSR and later in Russia because two old known records that have been made in Chukotka on 1 August 1881 and 15 August 1912 (Nelson 1983; Thayer, Bangs 1914) were not reliable. One more unconfirmed record was made on Vrangel Island on 11 June 1982 (Стишов и др. 1991). Finally a bird was collected at the Arctic coast of Chukotsky Peninsula on 7 June 2002 (Сыроечковский и др. 2004; Karhu 2004). However, Russian ornithologists have not been awareing until now about a specimen of the black turnstone from the area of Cape Serdze-Kamen, Arctic coast of Chukotsky Peninsula collected on 24 July 1910, which is preserved in the American Museum of Natural History (Handel, Gill 2001). The bird was collected by A.H.Dunham, who was presumably a collector for Captain Frank Kleinschmidt during a voyage for chicks and nest of the spoon-billed sandpiper (Thayer 1911).