l68 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



the second set, numbering two or three, are often deposited in a depression 

 scratched in the ground, as at first, but with no sign of any lining. Ac- 

 cidents of this kind cause tlie second set of eggs to be deposited sometimes 

 as late as the last of June (Nelson). These notes relate to northeastern 

 Illinois, where in suitable places the species is actually abundant, not 

 exceeded in numbers, saj^s Mr. Nelson, by even the ever-present Spotted 

 Sandpiper. 



Wilson's Phalarope is far from common in Michigan. Dr. Gibbs and 

 two companions shot five in Kalamazoo county from a flock of fifteen or 

 twenty, May 21, 1878, and Dr. Gibbs states that another man shot a single 

 specimen September 8 of the same year. There is a specimen in the collec- 

 tion of C. J. Davis, Lansing, taken at Chandler's Marsh, Ingham county, 

 probably about 1892 or 1893, and T. L. Hankinson took a pair at Chandler's 

 Marsh June 21, 1897, and was sure they were breeding. Mr. Saunders 

 records one killed at Mitchell's Bay, St. Clair Flats in May 1882 (Mcllwraith, 

 Birds of Ont., 1894, 128); and J. Claire Wood (letter, July 28, 1905) says 

 "In June, 1900, my brother saw one specimen at St. Clair Flats, and Jesse 

 Craven saw a pair there under circumstances that convinced him they 

 were breeding." May 9, 1906 Mr. J. Claire Wood saw a pair of these 

 phalaropes in Ecorse township, Wayne County, and on May 12, Mr. P A. 

 Taverner took a female in full plumage near the same place (Auk, XXIII, 

 1906, 335). Mr. A. B. Covert records the taking of a male and female on 

 the Huron River, near Ann Arbor, April 19, 1887 (Marginal note Coues 

 Key). The same collector has also recorded a nest with both parent birds 

 secured at Portage Lake, 26 miles north of Ann Arbor, July 2, 1875 (Forest 

 & Stream, VI, 25, 402). Mr. Stewart E. White says it is uncommon at 

 Grand Rapids (MS. List 1885). It is also included in Kneeland's List of 

 the Birds of Keweenaw Point, 1859, a doubtful record. 



The above records indicate that although the species is widely distributed 

 in Michigan it is nowhere common. The eggs are described as cream buff 

 or grayish buff, heavily spotted with dark brown or black; they average 

 1.28 by .90 inches. 



The food of all the phalaropes seems to consist entirely of animal forms, 

 and mainly of minute mollusca, Crustacea, and aquatic insects. The present 

 species, however, does not confine itself to aquatic forms, but eats a great 

 variety of insects, including many terrestrial species. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Bill decidedly longer than the head, very slender, almost cylindrical; legs slender, toes 

 slightly webbed at base, with a narrow marginal web along each toe, but without scallops 

 or lobes. Adult female in summer: Entire top of head bluish-gray, whitening on the 

 nape and hind neck and becoming darker blue-gray on the middle of the back; a black 

 stripe through the eye, expanding into a large black patch on the side of the neck and 

 continued as a broad chestnut stripe along the side of the neck to the middle of the back; 

 chin and upper throat white, as also the breast and tlic belly; the middle of the tiiroat 

 more or less washed with rufous and pale chestnut; sides and flanks grayisii; rump and 

 upper tail-coverts white, sometimes buffy tinted; wings brownish gray, the outer ]irimaries 

 with white shafts; tail-feathers largely white, broadly margined with gray. The adult 

 male in summer is smaller and much less conspicuous, lacking almost entirely the strongly 

 contrasted pearl-gray, chestnut, and black, and being simply grayish above and white 

 below. In any plumage, however, the bird is recognizable by the details of bill and feet. 

 Length of female 9.40 to 10 inches; wing 5.20 to 5.30; culmen L30 to L35; tarsus L30 to 

 L35. Length of adult male 8.25 to 9 inches; wing 4.75 to 4.80; culmen L25; tarsus L20 

 to 1.25. 



