12 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



appears faint, something as it does in the piping plover. What seems to be a 

 late summer plumage of birds of the year, on the other hand, is less white 

 than the corresponding one of the northern. As the bird sits on the water 

 the sides of its neck, breast, and sides appear brownish (not red or pink), 

 the only touch of whitish it shows is on the flanks. At close range a curved 

 phalarope mark behind the eye is just indicated, corresponding to the bold 

 contrasting mark in the northern. 



Enemies. — Phalaropes are not considered game birds, as they are 

 too small and too seldom seen in large numbers to warrant pursuing 

 them ; so man should not be counted among their enemies. On their 

 Arctic breeding grounds they evidently have plenty of avian enemies, 

 such as jaegers, gulls, and various gyrfalcons. Mr. Manniche (1910) 

 writes : 



The two phalaropes observed were evidently very much afraid of larger 

 waders as for instance knots. Several times I saw them rush together in 

 terror and lie motionless on the water with their heads pressed down to their 

 backs until the supposed danger — a passing knot — was past; then they con- 

 tinued their meal or love-making. The only enemy of the full-grown birds is 

 the gyrfalcon (Falco gyrfalco), which will surprise and capture them when 

 lying on the water. This I succeeded in observing one day in summer 1907 ; 

 just as I was observing a male phalarope, which swam along the beach of a 

 little clear pond hardly two paces from my feet, I suddenly heard a strong 

 whistling in the air and saw an old falcon, that from a dizzy height shot 

 like an arrow towards the surface of the water, caught the phalarope and again 

 rapidly rose in the air carrying the bird in its talons. I saw the bird of prey 

 descend and settle on the summit of a rock near the bay in order to eat its 

 prey. The method, with which the falcon carried out its exploit, proved that 

 several phalaropes before had the same fate. The gyrfalcon can certainly not 

 catch a phalarope in flight. 



Nature, however, sometimes takes her toll, as the following obser- 

 vation on the coast of California reported by L. W. Welch (1922) 

 will illustrate: 



There was an unusual migration of red phalaropes (Phalaropus fulicarius) 

 this past fall. I saw about three hundred within an hour on the ponds of the 

 Long Beach Salt Works. This was October 30. There was a great mortality 

 among them this year. Dead birds were brought to the schools picked up by 

 children in the streets or elsewhere. On the ponds mentioned above, dead birds 

 were washed up in windrows. I could count 19 from one position and 21 

 from another. I counted 75 within half an hour. The birds had no shot holes 

 in them, and showed no external evidences of having flown against wires, but 

 all the birds examined were emaciated in the extreme. 



Mr. Brandt in his manuscript notes writes : 



I was told that the natives look upon the flesh of the red phalarope as the 

 greatest delicacy, and it is considered the choicest food that can be placed 

 before an honored guest. The little native boys have, as their most prized 

 mark, this red-brown target. Inasmuch as this bird inhabits the small ponds 

 just outside the villages, the young hunters have always easily stalked game 

 available. The children begin to hunt the red phalarope as soon as they are 

 large enough to pull a bow string. The chase is so alluring that the older boy? 



