The Northern Phalarope {Phaiaropus lobatus). 



By W. Leon Dawson 



Description. — Adult female in summer: Above and on sides of breast and 

 sides (narrowly) slaty with a drab cast, blackish on back and scapulars, and edged 

 here with light ochraceous ; wings darker slaty gray, the greater coverts broadly 

 tipped with white, forming a transverse bar ; sides of neck and lower throat rufous, 

 — pure on sides, more or less mixed with slaty gray on throat; chin and under 

 parts entirely white ; bill black ; feet yellow, lobate and semipalmate, most exten- 

 sively between middle and outer toes. Adult male: Similar, slightly smaller, and 

 of duller coloration, save that the black of back is more decided, and the ochraceous 

 edgings of upper parts deeper. Adults in winter: Without rufous; more exten- 

 sively white; crown and auriculars (connecting below eye with a similar spot in 

 front of eye) and median stripe of hind-neck dusky gray; the rest white; remain- 

 ing upper parts blackish (centrally) and dusky gray, extensively edged and striped 

 with cream-bufT and white ; wing-bar as before ; sides of breast grayish clouded. 

 Immature: Similar to adult in winter, but with more black above; breast usually 

 tinged with buffy or brownish. Length 7.50 (190.5) ; wing 4.53 (115.1) ; tail 2.02 

 (51.3) ; bill .85 (21.6) ; tarsus .77 (19.6) ; middle toe and claw .80 (20.3). 



Recognition Marks. — Chewink size ; slaty gray, rufous, and white of head 

 and neck in spring plumage ; slender, black bill, less than one inch long, ivith 

 scalloped feet distinctive in any plumage. 



■ Nesting. — ^Boes not breed in Ohio. Nest, a slight depression in the ground, 

 lined with moss and grass. Eggs, 3 or 4; olive-buff or pale olive-gray, heavily 

 speckled, spotted or blotched with dark brown. Av. size, 1.19x.83 (30.2x21.1). 



General Range. — Northern portions of northern hemisphere, breeding in 

 Arctic latitudes ; south in winter to the tropics. 



NOTHING can exceed the exquisite grace of this delicate bird as it moves 

 about, not at the water's edge, like other waders which it so closely resembles in 

 appearance, but up the surface of a pool or even on the bosom of the deep. As it 

 swims it nods with every stroke. 



This Phalarope belongs to the shore birds and to a family that contains but 

 three known species. Two of these are sea birds. The other, Wilson's phalarope, 

 is an inhabitant of the interior of North America. Their feet are webbed, and 

 usually the two marine forms, or sea snipe, as they are sometimes called, migrate 

 in flocks far from land. Mr. Chapman says : "I have seen it in great numbers 

 about one hundred miles off Barnegat, New Jersey, in May. For several hours 

 the steamer passed through flocks, which were swimming on the ocean. They 

 arose in a body at our approach, and in close rank whirled away to the right or 

 left in search of new feeding grounds." 



It is not an exaggeration to say that it is one of the most beautiful of our 

 aquatic birds. All its motions are graceful. It possesses a quiet dignity and 

 elegance while swimming in search of food, which it frequently obtains by thrust- 



886 



