NORTHEKN PHALAHOPE 23 



toward the observer. Mr. Brewster (1883) has seen them pitch 

 " down from a considerable height with closed wings, much as snipe 

 will do under similar circumstances." Again he (1925) speaks of 

 seeing one "rise abruptly to a height of 15 or 20 feet, and poise 

 there for a moment, beating its wings and shaking its tail in a vio- 

 lent and peculiar manner." 



It is while swimming on smooth water that the northern phalarope 

 seems most at home, most graceful, charming, and confiding; it is 

 usually very tame and easily approached, but sometimes, especially 

 when in large flocks, it seems to be afraid of a boat and keeps be- 

 yond gun range. It swims lightly as a cork, its thick coat of breast 

 feathers giving it great buoyancy, its head is held high and carried 

 with a graceful nodding motion. When a flock alights on the water, 

 the individuals soon scatter and swim about rapidly and independ- 

 ently in zigzag lines or circles, jabbing their bills into the water in 

 a nervous and excited manner. I have never seen them dive and 

 doubt if they can do so, as they seem to have great difficulty in 

 getting under water, even to bathe. They frequently alight on 

 floating masses of seaweed, where they run about and feed with all 

 the nervous activity of small sandpipers on a mud flat. Roland C. 

 Ross (1924) made some interesting observations in southern Cali- 

 fornia ; he writes : 



The northern phalarope is quite fearless in this region, but seldom does one 

 find the birds so confiding as in the following instance : Mr. Ray Francisco, 

 tbe warden for the gun club on this marsh, was working in water a foot or 

 two deep, pulling out sedges, dock, and arrowweed. The northern phalaropes 

 took an interest in this roiled up water and drew close to dab at the surface 

 and " whirligig " about in their unique way. As the man kept at work they 

 drew nearer until actually about his feet. They stayed with him until he 

 stopped work in that section. They were observed sleeping on land and 

 water, bill along the back under a wing. Their ablutions were absurd attempts 

 to get a swanlike breast and neck under water, when such airy grace and 

 buoyancy forbade any subaquatic ventures. To get the proper ducking the 

 phalarope stretches up and drives his pretty head and breast down in the 

 water, which effort promptly forces his tail end up; whereupon like a cork 

 he rebounds, to ride high and dry above the water with hardly a sign of mois- 

 ture on the close-fitting plumage. At once he jerks up and ducks again, and 

 again, all to little avail, seemingly. This up-jerk and ducking motion can be 

 observed at a good distance, and the birds may be identified by it." 



A curious little incident, observed in the Hebrides by Misses 

 Best and Haviland (1914), is thus described: 



On the south side of the loch, just where we had seen the pair of birds on 

 our previous visit, we found a male and female in the long herbage at the 

 water side. Perhaps we ought to reverse the usual order and say female and 

 male, for the traditional dominance of the masculine sex is entirely unknown 

 in this species. Certainly this cock bird was a most henpecked little fowl. 

 Possibly he had been captured immediately on his arrival from the sea. At any 



