80 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Steganopus wilsoni Coues, Ibis, Apr. 1865, 158; Key, 1872, 248; Chock List, 1874, No. 409; 

 2d ed. 1882, No. 602; B. N. W. 1874, 467— Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 565— B. B. & 

 R. Water B. N. Am. i, 1884, 335. 

 Steganopus tricolor Vieill. Nouv.Dict. xxxii, 1819, 136. 

 Phalaropus tricolor Stejn. Auk, ii, 1885, 183.— A. O. U. Check List, 1886, No. 224.— Ridgw. 

 Man. N. Am. B. 1887, 145. 



Hab. Temperate North America, chiefly inland; north to eastern Oregon, Saskatche- 

 wan, and Nova Scotia; south, in winter, to Brazil and Patagonia. (Not recorded from the 

 Pacific coast of North America,) 



Sp. Chab. Adult female in summer: Forehead and crown pale pearl-gray, the 

 former with a blackish line on each side; occiput and nape white, changing to piumbeous- 

 gray on the back and scapulars. Stripe on side of head (chiefly ba?k of the eye), and con- 

 tinued down sides of neck, deep black, changing on lower part of the neck into rich dark 

 chestnut, which extends backward, somewhat interruptedly, on each side of the interscapu- 

 lar region; outermost scapulars marked with a similar stripe. A short stripe above the 

 lores and eyes (not reaching to the bill), cheeks, chin, and throat, pure white; foreneck and 

 chest soft buffy-cinnamon, deepest laterally and posteriorly, and fading gradually into 

 creamy buff on the breast; remaining lower parts white. Wings brownish gray, the 

 coverts and tertials margined with paler; rump brownish gray; upper tail-coverts pure 

 white. Adult male in summer: Smaller and much duller in color than the female, with 

 the beautiful markings of the latter usually but faintly indicated. Adult and young in 

 winter: Above plain light ash-gray; upper tail-coverts, superciliary stripe, and lower 

 parts, white, the chest and sides of breast faintly tinged with pale ashy. Young r Crown, 

 back, and scapulars blackish dusky, the feathers conspicuously margined with buffy ; upper 

 tail-coverts, superciliary stripe, and lower parts white, the neck tinged with buff. Downy 

 young: General color bright tawny, or tawny-brown, paler beneath, the belly nearly 

 white; occiput and nape with a distinct median streak of black, on the former branching 

 laterally into two narrower, somewhat zig-zag lines; lower back and rump with three 

 broad black stripes ; flanks with a black spot, and caudal region crossed by a wide sub- 

 terminal bar of black. 



Female. Length, about 9.40-10.00 inches; wing, 5.20-5.30; culmen, 1.30-1.35; tarsus, 1.30- 

 1.35; middle toe, .90-1.00. 



Male. Length, about 8.25-9.00; wing, 4.75-4.80; culmen, 1.25; tarsus, 1.20-1.25; middle 

 toe, .90. 



This beautiful bird, the adult female of which is by far the 

 handsomest of our small Waders, is a common summer resi- 

 dent in the prairie districts of Illinois. 



Mr. Nelson publishes an interesting account of the peculiari- 

 ties, or characteristics, of this species, in his catalogue of the 

 Birds of Northeastern Illinois (p. 124), which is as follows: 



"Very common summer resident in this vicinity. Found in 

 abundance about damp prairies and on grassy marshes. Arrives 

 about the middle of May and remains until into August. I 

 have found its nest from the 25th of May to June 25th. The 

 young usually appear about the middle of June and commence 

 to fly the first of July. The breeding plumage of the female of 

 this species is much brighter and richer than that of the male, 

 as has been recently announced by Mr. A. L. Kumlein {Field 

 mid Forest, July, 1876). The male builds the nest and attends 

 exclusively to the duties of incubation, it alone possessing the 



