RED PHALAROPE 7 



ular in shape; they are most numerous and often confluent at the 

 larger end ; but some eggs are finely speckled over the entire surface. 

 The prevailing colors of the markings are dark browns, from " warm 

 sepia " or " Vandyke brown " to " bone brown " or " clove brown." 

 Some eggs are marked with lighter or brighter browns, "hazel." 

 "russet," or even "tawny." The drab under markings are hardly 

 noticeable. The measurements of 148 eggs in the United States Na- 

 tional Museum average 31.5 by 22 millimeters; the eggs showing the 

 four extremes measure 35 by 22, 32 by 23 and 27.5 by 20.5 millimeters. 



Young. — Authorities differ as to the period of incubation, which 

 does not seem to have been definitely determined by anyone. Mr. 

 Conover writes to me that " a nest located June 10, with three eggs, 

 hatched on June 29." Incubation is performed almost wholly by 

 the male, but Mr. Brandt (mss.) says: "The female, however, is, 

 of course, the dominant member of the household, but she occasion- 

 ally shares the cares of incubation, as I proved by collecting one 

 from the nest; while later in the year I was successful in photo- 

 graphing a mother with a single chick. Perhaps it was a favorite 

 child which she was taking for a walk while the father was mother- 

 ing the rest of the family." Most observers agree that the male 

 assumes full care of the young also; but Miss Haviland (1915) 

 says : " It seems as if both male and female unite to care for the 

 young, and when the breeding ground is approached they fly around 

 and call anxiously." Probably the gaily dressed female is a poor 

 mother at best and prefers to join the large flocks of her sex on the 

 tundra pools. 



Plumages. — The downy young red phalarope is the handsomest 

 of its group, darker and more richly colored, as well as larger than 

 the young northern phalarope. The upper parts show various 

 shades of deep, warm brownish buff, darkest, " Sudan brown," on the 

 crown, paling to "raw sienna," on the sides of the head, occiput, 

 neck, thighs, and rump, and to " yellow ocher " on the rest of the 

 upper parts ; these colors shade off into " antimon}' yellow " or 

 " warm buff " on the throat and breast and to bufiy white on the 

 belly ; the down of the upper parts is tipped with black, except on the 

 yellow ocher parts, and is basally dusky. It is boldly marked above 

 with clear, velvety black; there is a large black patch back of the 

 central crown patch of brown and a diminishing black stripe on each 

 side of it ; a narrow black stripe runs from the hill, over the eye, to 

 the auriculars; another runs across the hind neck; a broad, but more 

 or less broken and irregular, black stripe extends down the center 

 of the back and a similar stripe down each side of it; there is also 

 a large well-defined black patch on each side of the rump, above the 

 thigh. 



