166 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



without nesting material, in depressions of the sand or moss, often in lichens, 

 about the fresh water ponds (Auk, XXII, 238). 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Bill sandpiper-like, about as long as the head, flattened and somewhat widened near 

 the end, the tip acute; legs slender and snipe-like, but toes margined with lobed flaps. 

 Adult, during fall migration: Entire under parts, with most of head and neck, pure 

 white; top of head, nape, back of neck, and ring around eye, slaty black; rest of upper 

 parts clear pearl-^ray; the primaries and tertiaries black or slaty-black; wing with a con- 

 spicuous white wing-bar, formed by the tips of the greater coverts. Immatvu-e, at same 

 season: Similar, except that a few blackish feathers may be scattered over the back, 

 and the tertiaries are margined with white or rusty. Length 7.50 to 8.75 inches; wing 

 5.25 to 5.50; culmen .80 to .95; tarsus .80 to .85. Adults in summer have the entire lower 

 parts deep purplish cinnamon, and the forepart of the head as well as the top dark slate- 

 color; it is doubtful, however, if specimens in this plumage ever occur in Michigan. 



87. Northern Phalarope. Lobipes lobatus (Linn.). (223) 



Synonyms: Red-necked Phalarope. — Tringa lobata, Linn., 1758. — T. hyperborea, 

 Linn., 1766. — Phalaropus hyperboreus, Nutt., Aud., Cass., Baird. — Phalaropus lobatus, 

 Ridgw., 1887, A. O. U. Check-list, 1895, and most subsequent authors. 



Known by its similarity to the preceding (including of course the pecu- 

 liarly fringed toes), but rather smaller, and the bill very slender, cyHndrical 

 and sharp, although about the same length. 



Distribution. — Northern portions of Northern Hemisphere, breeding in 

 Arctic latitudes; south in winter to the tropics. 



This is another marine species which is hardly more than a straggler 

 in Michigan. Dr. Gibbs states that D. D. Hughes, in his manuscript Orni- 

 thology of Michigan, says that there is "A specimen in Mr. Barron's collec- 

 tion at Niles; also one in the Hobson collection at Detroit, and said to be 

 not rare on Detroit River in spring." We have not been able to verify 

 any of these statements, and the only phalarope in the Barron collection 

 in November 1905 proved to be Wilson's. Covert in his manuscript list. 

 1894-95, says there are but two authentic records of its capture; probably 

 referring to the ones just cited. Mcll wraith quotes Saunders' record of 

 "One found dead at Mitchell's Bay 1882" (Birds of Ont., 1894, 127). A 

 skin in the Kent Scientific Museum at Grand Rapids proves to have been 

 collected in Freeborn Co., Minn., August 29, 1878. I do not know of an 

 actual Michigan specimen preserved anywhere. Kumlien and Hollister 

 state that this species is "Much more common than the Red Phalarope. 

 * * * Noted on Lakes Michigan and Superior in September and October, 

 and a regular spring and fall migrant on Lake Koshkonong, though more 

 often taken in fall than in spring" (Birds of Wisconsin, 1903, p. 41). 



In its habits the Northern Phalarope is quite similar to the Red Phalarope, 

 migrating in flocks, usually over the ocean, at a distance from land. It 

 feeds on small Crustacea and other marine animals found at the surface, 

 and it swims and dives with the greatest ease. 



It nests far north, laying its eggs in a hollow on the ground, and they 

 closely resemble those of the other phalaropes, being pale olive-buff, thickly 

 spotted with dark brown, and averaging 1.20 by .82 inches. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Bill very slender and almost cylindrical, hardly longer than the head; legs and feet very 

 slender, the toes partly webbed, the edges of the webs and the sides of the toes being 

 scalloped or lobed. Adult, during migration : ^ Under parts entirely white, as also the 



