44 Wyoming Experiment Station. 



at Fort Bridger, 1858. The University data are all from the 

 Laramie Plains, where they have been taken in May and July. 



221. Fulica americana Gmel. 

 American Coot. 

 Summer resident. They are found in vast numbers breed- 

 ing about small lakes and ponds below 8,000 feet. They are 

 as a rule ruthlessly slaughtered by duck hunters, they claiming 

 that they ruin the feeding grounds for ducks long before the 

 ducks arrive from the north. In the west they are seldom 

 used as food, although highly praised by a few. In the fall 

 of the year it is not an uncommon thing to see flocks contain- 

 ing several hundred on the small lakes on the Laramie plains. 

 When fired upon they half run and half fly, just touching the 

 tips of their toes to the water and soon settle in a new place 

 not far from where they were shot at. They arrive late in 

 March upon the Laramie Plains and in one instance I found 

 a bird with feet frozen in the ice and still alive. Every spring 

 a few of these birds follow the Red-heads and on account of 

 the lakes freezing over after they arrive they usually perish. 

 These birds are so numerous about their breeding places that 

 records are hardly necessary. It can be said that nearly all 

 who have interested themselves in Wyoming birds have found 

 them abundant. 



SHORE BIRDS. 



PHALAROPES. 



222. Crymophilus fulicarius (Linn.). 

 Red Phalarope. 

 Very rare if not accidental. The only specimen taken in 

 Wyoming was that by C. W. Gilmore on the Laramie plains 

 during the fall of 1897. This skin was identified by Mr. Robert 

 Ridgway of Washington, D. C. 



