KED PHALAROPE 11 



devious courses. It was most interesting to see a bird whose characteristic 

 haunts, at least in autumn and winter, are boundless stretches of wind-swept 

 ocean, thus disporting itself in a brawling mountain stream overarched by 

 trees. Even a water ousel could not have appeared more perfectly at home 

 there. Like most phalaropes this one was tame and confiding, but whenever 

 I approached within 20 or 25 feet, it would rise and fly on a few yards, giving 

 the whit call. 



On land their movements are exceedingly rapid and graceful, 

 though somewhat erratic; they run about excitedly with all the 

 restless activity of sandpipers, nodding their heads with a pretty, 

 dovelike motion. At such times they are remarkably tame, un- 

 suspicious, and gentle birds; as they do not habitually come in 

 contact with human beings, they are unafraid. 



Voice. — The vocal performances of the red phalarope are not 

 elaborate. As quoted above, Doctor Nelson (1887) describes its note 

 as "a low and musical clink, clink, sounding veiy much like the 

 noise made by lightly tapping together two small bars of steel." 

 Mr. Brewster (1925) refers to the note as "an emphatic zip, sip, 

 closely resembling that of Bonaparte's sandpiper . . . but louder 

 and mellower." Again he says : " Once they rose and flew about the 

 pond precisely like small sandpipers, one of them Uttering a peep- 

 like tweet just as it left the water." Charles W. Townsend (1920) 

 saw one which "'emitted a whistle which was clear and pleasant at 

 times, and again sharp and grating; at times the note could be 

 expressed as a creak." 



Field marks. — In its nuptial plumage the red phalarope can be 

 easily recognized by its brilliant colors; the male is smaller, his 

 colors are duller, and his breast is mixed with white. In its winter 

 plumage, in which we usually see it, it is likely to be confused with 

 the northern phalarope or the sanderling. It is larger than the 

 former, more stockily built and has a shorter, thicker bill, which is 

 yellowish at the base. From the sanderling it can be distinguished 

 by the gray markings on the head and neck, which are mainly white 

 in winter sanderlings, by the darker gray of the back and by the 

 yellow at the base of the bill. Phalaropes are usually tame enough 

 to allow 7 close study of these details. John T. Nichols suggests to 

 me the following additional field characters : 



This phalarope holds its gray plumage well into the spring and adults quickly 

 resume same when they go to sea in late summer. Around the first of August 

 flocks offshore are in gray and white " winter " plumage, but a few birds 

 have a peculiar pink tone appreciable on the underparts at fair range, apt 

 to be strongest posteriorly, and which is diagnostic. It is caused by scattered 

 old red feathers overlaid by the delicate tips of new white ones. The white 

 wing stripe is somewhat broader in this than in the northern phalarope and 

 in gray plumage the upper parts are of so pale a tone that the wing pattern 



