60 WATER BIRDS 



am positive that the mother was not near the nest at 

 any time after the eggs were laid. The male brooded 

 continually, leaving only when necessary to obtain food. 

 Almost as soon as the down was dry on the cliicks they 

 ran out of the nest like little sandpipers, and followed 

 him about up and down the beach, picking up their 

 own food, before they were ten hours old, and the 

 second day they were swimming in the shallow water 

 as gayly as any of the adult birds. 



The Phalaropes are not rare along the eastern part of 

 California, and doubtless nest in other marshes than 

 those bordering some parts of Lake Tahoe. They breed 

 there quite abundantly, and their sandpiper-like cries 

 mingle with the plaintive notes of the killdeer whenever 

 anyone enters the nesting place. Like the killdeer, also, 

 the Phalarope will fly restlessly back and forth over its 

 home, revealing by its very anxiety what it is most 

 anxious to conceal. Wilson Phalarope is exclusively 

 an American species, and is less common on the coasts 

 than in the interior. 



225. AMERICAN AV^OCET. — Recunirostra americana. 



Family : The Avocets and Stilts. 



Length: 17.00. 



Adults in Summer: Head, neck, shoulders, and chest uniform light 



reddish brown, merging to buff at base of bill ; rump, wing-patches, 



and belly white ; scapulars and primaries black ; bill long, black, and 



curved upward ; feet and legs grayish blue. 

 Adults in IVinter: Head, neck, and chest grayish white ; otherwise as 



in summer. 

 Downy Young: Upper parts grayish, mottled with darker ; under parts 



lighter, nearly white on throat and chest; dark, almost black, 



splatches on the rump and shoulders. 



