NORTHERN PHALAROPE 19 



resorts all through the western part of the chain were the wetter 

 portions of the flat alluvial plains, near the mouths of the streams 

 and about the marshy ponds. They were very tame everywhere 

 and, about the ponds where they were breeding, they were very 

 solicitous and noisy. Their simple nests were merely deep, little 

 hollows, lined with a few bits of grass, in the little mounds or tus- 

 socks in the wet meadows around the borders of the ponds or near 

 the small streams. 



F. S. Hersey collected several sets of eggs for me near St. Michael, 

 Alaska, in 1914 and 1915 ; most of the nests were in rather wet sit- 

 uations on the tundra, in or near marshy places, rather poorly con- 

 cealed and scantily lined with grasses ; others were well hidden in the 

 clumps of scanty grass, or deeply sunken into the tundra mosses 

 and lined with bits of leaves or well lined with grasses. Other 

 observers have described the nesting habits of this species substan- 

 tially as indicated above, except that Henry H. Slater (1898), who 

 has "encountered 45 nests with eggs in them in one day, and con- 

 siderably more than a hundred altogether ", describes the nest as 

 "a deep comfortable cup, concealed in a tuft of grass, or under a 

 trailing branch of some dwarf Arctic shrub." 



Eggs. — The northern phalarope lays four eggs almost invariably, 

 rarely three eggs constitute a second set; as many as five and even 

 seven eggs have been found in a nest, the largest number being the 

 product of two females. The eggs vary in shape from subpyriform 

 to ovate pyriform, are slightly glossy and are very fragile. The 

 prevalent ground colors range from " pale olive buff " to " dark olive 

 buff " or " ecru olive ;" " olive buff " seems to be the commonest shade. 

 In richly colored sets the colors range from "Isabella color," or 

 "Dresden brown" to "buckthorn brown;" and in light buffy sets 

 from " cream buff " to " cream color." The size, type, and arrange- 

 ment of markings vary greatly in endless patterns. Some eggs, 

 perhaps only one in a set, are evenly covered with small spots or 

 dots, but more often these are mixed with larger, irregular spots or 

 blotches. Some eggs are boldly marked with large irregular blotches. 

 The colors of the markings range from " sepia," or " warm sepia," 

 and "bister" to deep blackish brown, depending on the depth of the 

 pigment. The underlying spots, in various drab shades, are small, 

 inconspicuous and not numerous. In my series of over 50 sets 

 there are two abnormal eggs; one is plain bluish white and un- 

 marked; and another is similar except for one large blotch of 

 " sepia " covering the large end. The measurements of 119 eggs, in 

 the United States National Museum, average 29 by 20 millimeters; 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 33 by 21, 28 by 22.5, 

 27 by 19, and 31 by 18.5 millimeters. 



