WATER BIRDS. 



16? 



forehead, line over the eye, and the sides of the neck; top of head gray, more or less streaked 

 with dusky; a blackish spot in front of the eye and more or less dusky and gray behind 

 and below the eye; upper parts gray or bluish gray. Young, during fall migration: Similar, 

 but more streaked above, the feathers of back mostly margined with buffy, the middle 

 wing-coverts bordered with white or yellowish white. Length 7 to 8 inches; wing 4 to 

 4.45; culmen .80 to .90; tarsus .75 to .80. In summer the sides of the neck and a con- 

 siderable part of the upper breast are reddish brown, more conspicuous in the female 

 than in the male; if is doubtful, however, if this species is ever seen in this plumage in 

 Michigan. 



88. Wilson's Phalarope. Steganopus tricolor Vieill. (224) 



Synonyms: Summer Phalarope. — Phalaropus lobatus, Wils., 1825. — Phalaropus 

 Wilsoni, Sab., 1823, Nutt., Aud., Cass., Baird. — Steganopus Wilsoni, Coues, Ridgw. — 

 Steganopus tricolor, Vieill., 1819. — Phalaropus tricolor, A. O. U. Check-list, 1895. 



Figure 47. 



The combination of a snipe-like form and action, with the thick elastic 

 plumage of a duck and the web-margined toes, is common to the three 

 species of phalarope, but the present species is distinguished easily by its 

 superior size, the absence of lobes in the toe webs, and especially by the 

 slender bill from an inch to an inch and a quarter long. 



Distribution. — Temperate North America, chiefly the interior, breeding 

 from northern IlUnois and Utah northward to the Saskatchewan region; 

 south in winter to Brazil and Patagonia. 



This bird, both in structure and habits, is more snipe-like or sandpiper- 

 like than either of the others. Confined almost entirely to fresh water 

 lakes and marshes it is less often seen swimming on 

 the open lake, more often found wading in the 

 marshy pools or swimming there in small flocks. 



According to Nelson "The charming grace of 

 movement exhibited • at such times, combined with 

 their tasteful elegance of attire, form one of the most 

 pleasing sights one could witness, as they swim 

 buoyantly from side to side of the pool, gracefully 

 nodding their heads; now pausing an instant to 

 arrange a feather or to daintily gather some fragment 

 of food, and now floating idly about, wafted by the 

 slight breeze which at intervals ripples the surface 

 of the water. A more common, but scarcely less 

 pleasing sight is presented when, unconscious of 

 observation, they walk sedately along the border of 

 the water, never departing from their usual easy 

 grace of movement" (Bull. Nutt. Club, II, 41). 



The same writer states that the male commonly 

 prepares the nest and attends to the whole duty of incubation, but the 

 female remains in the vicinity and evidently helps care for the young, 

 although the females disappear about the middle of July, before the males 

 and young. The nest is said to be a shallow depression in the soft earth, 

 which is usually lined with a thin layer of fragments of old grass blades, 

 upon which the eggs, numbering from three to four, are deposited about 

 the last of May or first of June. Owing to the low situations in which 

 the nests are placed the first set of eggs is often destroyed by a heavy fall 

 of rain, causing the water to rise so as to submerge the nest. In this case 



Wilson's Phalar- 

 (Original.) 



