NORTHERN PHALAROPE 25 



taken on these two dates were adult females; many males were 

 probably still tending broods of young. A. G. Lawrence writes to 

 me that these birds are fairly common transients in southern Mani- 

 toba, from August 15 to the end of September. 



H. L. Stoddard (1923) has published the following note: 



Occasionally in August and September of past years large flocks of small 

 shore birds have been seen a long way offshore in the sand-dune region of 

 southern Lake Michigan circling and wheeling, flashing alternately snow-white 

 breasts and darker backs. Long-range examination with binoculars showed 

 rather prominent whitish wing bars, but the identity of the birds was never 

 satisfactorily determined until the afternoon of August 28, 1921, when the 

 writer was camping at the mouth of the above-mentioned Bar Creek, in She- 

 boygan County, Wis. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon a light fog drifted in, 

 and soon after large numbers of small shore birds, similar in actions and 

 appearance to those mentioned, were sighted executing extraordinary maneu- 

 vers close to the surface of the water about 500 yards out. They circled and 

 recircled, turned and twisted, some of the flocks finally alighting in some smooth 

 streaks in the water inshore of a long line of net stakes that extended about a 

 mile out. Fully 500 of the birds, now recognized as phalaropes, were in sight. 

 One specimen, a female in fall plumage, was finally secured by tying the shot- 

 gun onto driftwood pieces and swimming out among them. They were in no 

 way disturbed at my presence until a. shot was fired, and I fully satisfied myself 

 that the bulk of the flock were of the same species as the one secured, northern 

 phalaropes. 



J. A. Munro tells me that these birds are irregular fall migrants 

 at Okanagan Landing, British Columbia, from July 28 to September 

 18. Along the California coast the fall migration is heavy and pro- 

 longed from the latter part of July until late October or early 

 November, the bulk of the flight passing during August and Sep- 

 tember. Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) say: 



Heavy winds on the ocean sometimes prove disastrous to the migrating hosts 

 of northern phalaropes. Chapman records finding many bodies of this species 

 in the tide pools of the Farallon Islands. A heavy northwest wind had been 

 blowing along the coast for the previous two weeks, and many of the birds- 

 had resorted to inland pools of water. The emaciated condition of the birds 

 at the Farallones was probably due to their inability to procure food while on 

 the open ocean in migration. Forbush records numbers of these birds as being 

 killed on the Atlantic coast by dashing against lighthouses at night. In the 

 Cape Region of Lower California, Brewster found thai "most of the birds 

 examined had lost one or more toes, and two or three an entire foot, and part 

 of the tarsus also, while others showed gaping wounds on the breast. These 

 mutilations were probably caused by ;'ne bites of fishes." Emerson records 

 finding several of these birds killed by flying against the telephone wires 

 strung across the salt ponds on the marshes west of Hayward, and says that 

 very many of this and other species of birds are killed in this manner. 



Winter. — Practically nothing is known about the winter home of 

 this species in the Western Hemisphere. It is evidently south of the 

 borders of the United States and probably south of the Equator on 



