WATER BIRDS. 165 



Order IX. LHIICOL.E. Shore Birds. 

 Family 24. PHALAROPODID.E. Phalaropes. 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



A. Front toes with marginal webs, but the membrane not scalloped (Fig. 

 47); bill longer than head, very slender. Wilson's Phalarope. 

 No. 88. 

 AA. Front toes with lobed or scalloped webs. B, BB. 



B. Bill about as long as head, very slender, cylindrical. Northern 



Phalarope. No. 87. 

 BB. Bill about as long as head, rather stout, flattened. Red 

 Phalarope. No. 86. 



86. Red Phalarope. Phalaropus fulicarius (Linn.). (222) 



Synonyms: Gray Phalarope, Sea-snipe. — Tringa fulicaria, Linn., 1766.- — Plialaropu 

 fulicarius, Bonap., Nutt., Aud., Baird. — Crymophilus fulicarius, A. O. U. Check-list 

 1895, and most subsequent authors. 



The snipe-like form, but rather short, stout bill and scalloped web border- 

 ing the toes, serve to identify this species in any plumage. 



Distribution. — Northern parts of Northern Hemisphere, breeding in the 

 Arctic regions and migrating south in winter; in the United States south to 

 the middle states, Ohio Valley, and Cape St. Lucas; chiefly maritime. 



When migrating this is a bird of the open water, usually the sea, where 

 it feeds and rests in flocks, swimming as gracefully and safely as a duck, 

 and found along the shore only when driven in by storms. In Michigan 

 it is one of the rarest of the waders and has been noted only a few times. 

 It is credited to Michigan by Stockwell (Forest & Stream, VIII, 22, 361). 

 According to Mcllwraith Dr. Gamier saw a flock of six at Mitchell's Bay, 

 near St. Clair, in the fall of 1880 and secured one of them (Birds of Ontario, 

 1894, 125). One was taken October 24, 1888, on Lake Erie at the mouth 

 of the River Raisin, Monroe, JNIich., and recorded by Mr. Robt. B. Lawrence 

 (Auk, VII, 1890, 204). A second specimen taken at Monroe, October 15, 

 1894, by Mr. Lawrence, was kindly presented to the Michigan Agricultural 

 College; it settled among the duck decoys of the Monroe Marsh 

 Club and was alone when shot. Kumlien & HoUister state that 

 "Small flocks may be met on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior in autumn, 

 and occasionally straggling individuals wander to the larger inland lakes. 

 Four specimens, one adult female and three young of the year, were taken 

 on Lake Koshkonong September 3, 1891. We have but a single state record 

 for the early part of the season, a solitary female killed by Tliure Kumlien 

 on Lake Koshkonong June 4, 1877" (Birds of Wisconsin, 1903, 41). 



This species nests in Arctic regions, laying three or four pale brown, 

 heavily spotted eggs in a moss-lined hollow on the ground. The eggs aver- 

 age 1.24 by .86 inches. Eifrig found this a very common species about 

 Fuller! on and Southampton, in Northwestern Hudson Bay, laying the eggs, 



