THE RED PHALAROPE. 703 



sliafts; the greater coverts tipped with white, the inner primaries wliite-edged 

 basally, and the secondaries extensively white at base ; upper tail-coverts black, 

 with ochraceous tips centrally, plain cinnamon laterally. Adult male: Very simi- 

 lar, but smaller ; white on sides of head reduced ; crown and hind-neck streaked 

 with ochraceous. Adults iu winter: Quite different. Upperparts ashy, nearly 

 uniform; wing darker ash or Ijlackish, but with white bar as before; head and 

 neck all around, and entire under])arts pure white, or ashy-washed on sides only; 

 a dusky space about eye, and anotlier on hind head. Immature: Above dull black, 

 with ochraceous edgings; wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts plumbeous, — 

 the first bordered by buffy and the last by ochraceous: remainder of head and 

 neck and lower parts white, tinged with brownish buff' on the throat and chest 

 (Ridgw.). Length about 8.00 (203.2) ; wing 5.35 (135.9) : tail 2.13 (54.6) ; bill 

 .86 (21.8) ; tarsus .80 (20.3) ; middle toe and claw .93 (23.6). 



Recognition Marks. — Chewink size; lobate feet (in common with other Pha- 

 laropes) ; broadened sulcate bill distinctive; a little larger than the ne.xt. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in Washington. Nest: a slight hollow in the 

 ground, lined with a few bits of moss and grasses. Eggs: 3 or 4, pale drab or 

 olivaceous, spotted and blotched with dark browns. Av. size, 1.25 .\ .88 (31.8 

 X 22.4 ). 



General Range. — Northern parts of northern hemisphere, breeding from 

 Alaine northward and in Arctic regions, and migrating south in winter ; in the 

 United States south in the interior to the Middle States, on the Pacific Coast 

 south to Cape St. Lucas ; chiefly maritime. 



Range in Washington. — Common migrant, but appearing chiefly in open 

 water oft' the W'est diast and in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. 



Authorities.^Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. 1858. IX. p. 707. T. CcSiS. 

 Specimens. — ( U. of W. ) Prov. 



WE have only the most meager information as to the occurrence oi this 

 species in Washington, a specimen taken by j\lr. Clark P. Streator at Ilwaco, 

 Nov. 9, 1889, and two observed by Cooper as they swam in the surf after a 

 storm, on Shoalwater Bay. The Red Phalarope is more exclusively maritime 

 than the other members of this group, being found in the breeding season only 

 along the coasts of the northern Atlantic and Pacific, and the Arctic Oceans. 

 It is of necessity chained to shore for a season by the bonds of the reproductive 

 instinct ; but once the little family is reared, on some Arctic flat or bleak ice- 

 bound islet, the Phalaropes gather in great companies and put out to the open 

 sea. The dainty birds are expert swimmers, and are the most at home upon the 

 water of any of the Limicolae. Whalers affirm that the appearance of Phala- 

 ropes is a good index of the near presence of some large cetacean, especially of 

 the Bow-head, or Right Whale (Balcriia inysticetus), since the birds delight in 

 the same sort of sea-forage as that upon which the wdiales subsist. Only the 

 freezing of the Arctic waters induces these hardy adventurers to quit their 

 frigid haunts; and if thev wander down our coast in late autumn, it is only be- 

 cause time hangs heavy upon their wings until they may return to those en- 

 chanted seas. 



