THE WILSON PHALAROPE. 707 



boots cease to splash, but still make a noise like bovine osculation. I 

 came upon the Wilson Phalan )pe — two of him and two of her. The 

 male bird doesn't count in Phalarope society, at least when it comes to 

 voting. 



The birds were evidently paired and, as manifestly, had local attach- 

 ments for that particular stretch of grass and weeds and ooze. One 

 pair lit near me as I was photographing a Black Tern's nest, and the 

 male began to poke about in the reeds, like a hen that has forgotten, 

 or pretends to have forgotten, the precise location of her nest. The fe- 

 male dogged his steps and he occasionally chased her off in a petulant 

 way, precisely as a female of an\- more rational species would have done 

 under like circumstances. Finally, the male housewife disappeared in a 

 certain clump toward whicli he had already twice feinted. The female 

 came to a standstill and mounted guard for as much as ten minutes. The 

 situation was perfectly clear from an oological standpoint. The eggs 

 were being covered until it suited my pleasure to claim them. Imagine 

 m\- surprise, therefore, when the female suddenly flitted over the weeds 

 to a more distant clump, to which her dutiful spouse had sneaked, routed 

 him out and made off with him to parts unknown. 



On succeeding days I raked that neck of the swamp with a fine-toothed 

 comb, but all to no avail. The birds came and went without rhyme or 

 reason, now one, now two, and now all four at once, fnmi 1 knew not 

 where, and disappeared again as mysteriously. If they lighted, the reeds 

 swallowed them up: if they flew, they did it in a demure way which was 

 a rebuke to curiosity. In Hying, a bird would sometimes give voice to its 

 disquiet in a sort of hoarse, barking note, a rough monosyllable, ivib. which 

 was also occasionally subdued to a mellow croak, oont. This was often a 

 summons, and if uttered by a single bird aloft, would ser\-e to rouse its 

 mate from some recess of the grass: whereupon both would flit away, as 

 tho renouncing all claim to that locality. 



As it happened once, so it happened a dozen times: and a like experi- 

 ence befell upon each of two succeeding Junes, when, with another ex- 

 perienced bird-man. I returned to the quest. The same I?") four birds 

 were there, riveted in interest to the same locality. Tliex- came and went 

 in the same mysterious, casual fashion. They treated us with the same 

 studious neglect. And as to their nesting habits we are never a whit the 

 wiser. Wherefore. I repeat, these be most exasperating fowls ! ALso, we 

 resign our claim upon them. If any one is curious to follow their fortunes, 

 we will cheerfullv furnish tlie street and number where this disappearance 

 syndicate was last heard from: viz., Grassrue 2;i,. Weedstem 13. 



