22 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



or three times during each revolution ; the spinning motion is often 

 very rapid and sometimes quite prolonged, a curious performance to 

 watch. We saw this many times in the Aleutian Islands where small 

 flocks were constantly seen spinning around about the old piers or 

 feeding in the surf off the beaches where they floated buoyantly 

 over the little waves or fluttered over the crests of the small breakers. 

 William Brewster (1925) describes an interesting feeding per- 

 formance, at Umbagog Lake, Maine, as follows : 



Alighting again, about 100 yards off, it began fluttering about in circles, 

 now narrowly clearing the water for a yard or two, next bitting against or 

 skittering over the surface, acting indeed, for all the world like some enfeebled 

 butterfly or clumsy moth, alternately attracted and repelled by a forest pool 

 lying in deep shadow. This singular performance was occasionally varied by 

 more pronounced upward flights, extending to a height of several feet, and 

 apparently undertaken in pursuit of flying insects, passing overhead. 



Both the northern and the red phalaropes feed in large numbers 

 at sea, often being associated together ; their favorite feeding places 

 are in the tide rips, on or around floating masses of seaweed, in the 

 vicinity of whales or near schools of fish. George H. Mackay (1894) 

 writes : 



On May 25, 1S94, about 10,000 (as carefully estimated) were observed rest- 

 ing on the water around the "pigs" (rocks lying off Swampscott), occupying 

 an area of about a mile radius. They were feeding on the red whale bait 

 (brit) some of which was taken from them. I am informed that these birds 

 follow the mackerel, which also feed on this brit, by their pursuit of which 

 it is driven to the surface, and is then obtainable by the birds. I am also 

 told that in the Bay of Fundy the phalaropes so frighten the mackerel when 

 they come to the surface in pursuit of the brit, that the fish sink themselves. 

 To prevent this, the fishermen carry at times quantities of liver cut up, which 

 they throw out. to attract these birds and keep them away from the fish in 

 order that they may be better able to capture the latter. 



Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1925), in his report on the food of the 

 northern phalarope, gives the results of the examination of 155 

 stomachs, collected in Alaska and in the United States, from May to 

 October, inclusive; flies and the larvae of mosquitoes were the 

 largest element, 32.8 per cent ; the true bugs (Hemiptera) came next, 

 31.8 per cent, including water boatmen and back swimmers; beetles 

 represented 16.5 and crustaceans 9.3 per cent; the remainder con- 

 tained dragonfly nymphs, spiders, marine worms, small mollusks, a 

 few' small fishes and a few seeds. Various other insects and their 

 larvae, many of which are injurious, are included in the food of 

 this bird. 



Behavior. — In flight these phalaropes remind one of the smaller 

 sandpipers; their flight is swift and often erratic; when flying in 

 flocks they twist and turn and wheel back and forth like a flock of 

 peeps, flashing white or dark gray, as breasts or backs are turned 



