ORDER OF SHORE BIRDS 



Order Limicolw 



HORE birds include seven closely related families — so closely related that 

 no suborder has been established within this order. The various species 

 frequent open areas, usually along watercourses, ocean beaches, or marshes. 

 They average small in size, the largest North American species being the 

 Long-billed Curlew, and the smallest being the Least and Semipalmated Sand- 

 pipers, or Peeps, so abundant in the spring, summer, and fall everywhere in 

 the maritime districts. In color they are generally brown or blackish above, 

 mottled and streaked with buf? or whitish. The wings are long and pointed, 

 the primaries graduating rapidly from outer to inner, the secondaries reversing 

 this order — this giving a V-shape to the open wing. Many species are capable of sustained 

 flight, and perform almost incredible journeys during migration. The tail is short. The 

 legs are long and thin with long, slender, usually unwebbed, toes. 



The food of the Shore Birds is the mollusks, crustaceans, and insects, found in the mud 

 or along the moist strand of their habitat. They nest on the ground, usually laying four 

 eggs, which are so well spotted or blotched with dark colors that they are quite inconspicuous 

 among the grass or pebbles. When hatched the young are covered with down of a gray or 

 brown color marked with blackish. At the approach of an " enemy " these downy chicks 

 lie fiat on the ground in an endeavor to escape detection. 



Shore Birds have mellow, piping or whistling, voices, which can be heard for some dis- 

 tance. They are greatly prized as game birds and have been hunted to such an extent that 

 it is not uncommon to hear them spoken of as " our vanishing shore birds." 



PHALAROPES 



Order Limicolcc ; family Phalaropodidw 



ITTLE swimming Sandpipers " the Phalaropes were aptly called by Dr. Coues. 

 They are essentially birds of the northern hemisphere, and all of the three 

 species occur in North America, though only one, Wilson's Phalarope, is 

 actually a permanent resident of this continent. A peculiar and interesting 

 characteristic of the family is that the usual differences between the sexes 

 of most species are reversed in the case of the Phalaropes ; which is to say, 

 the females are not only the larger and have the more striking plumage, 

 but they are the aggressors in the courtship performances and the males 

 do the nest-building and incubate the eggs. 



All of the Phalaropes are comparatively small birds — from seven to nine 

 inches long — and have noticeably thick, duck-like plumage to protect their 

 bodies from the freezing waters in which they are often found, and a bill in which the lateral 

 groove is prolonged nearly to the hardened and pointed tip, while the bill itself is as long as or 

 longer than the head. The toes are equipped with marginal webs. The legs are normally 

 long and slender. The wings are long, flat, and pointed, with the outer primaries longest 

 and the inner secondaries elongated, giving the wing in flight a V-shaped appearance. The 

 tail is short, stifT, broad, and rounded. 



Dr. Coues's popular name for the Phalaropes is in recognition of their pelagic, or at least 

 aquatic, habjts, which often take them many miles out to sea, even in the dead of winter. 

 The nests are mere depressions in the ground and sometimes are thinly lined with grass. 

 Three or four eggs are laid but only about two young are successfully hatched and raised. 



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