32 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Plumages. — In its natal down the young Wilson phalarope is 

 entirely unlike the other phalaropes and quite different from any 

 other 3 r oung wader. The slender bill and long slender legs and feet 

 are characteristic. It is prettily and distinctively colored also. The 

 prevailing color of the upper parts and of a band across the chest 

 is "ochraceous buff," deepening on the crown, wings, and mantle 

 almost to " ochraceous orange," and paling to buffy or grayish white 

 on the belly and to pure white on the chin and throat. There is a 

 narrow, median, black line on the crown extending nearly or quite 

 to the bill; this is continued in a broad, more or less broken, black 

 stripe down the center of the back to a large black patch on the 

 rump; a black spot on each side of the crown, one on the occiput 

 and several more on wings, thighs, and sides of the back, sometimes 

 run together to form stripes. 



In fresh juvenal plumage, in July, the feathers of the crown, back, 

 scapulars, tertials, and all wing coverts are dusky or nearly black, 

 broadly edged with " light pinkish cinnamon " or " cinnamon buff," 

 broadest and brightest on the scapulars; the under parts are white, 

 but the throat, sides of the breast and flanks are washed with 

 "pinkish buff," and the last two are mottled with dusky; the central 

 tail feathers are broadly edged with " pinkish buff," bordered in- 

 wardly with a broad dusky band, surrounding a white area, with 

 a dusky central streak invading it; the other tail feathers are simi- 

 larly marked, but less completely patterned. 



This plumage is worn for only a short time, as the body plumage 

 and tail are molted during the last half of July and in August. By 

 September 3 7 oung birds are in first winter plumage, which is like 

 that of the adult, except that the entire juvenal wing is retained 

 with the buff edgings faded out to white. The sexes are alike in 

 juvenal and all winter plumages. A partial prenuptial molt in the 

 spring, involving the body plumage and most, if not all, of the wing 

 coverts and scapulars, makes the young bird practically adult. 



Adults have a partial prenuptial molt in April and May, involv- 

 ing the tail, the wing coverts and all the body plumage, which pro- 

 duces the well-known brilliant plumage of the female and the duller 

 plumage of the male. The complete postnuptial molt in summer pro- 

 duces the gray winter plumage in both sexes, in which the crown, 

 back, and scapulars are " light drab " or " drab-gray," with narrow 

 white edgings, and the upper tail coverts, as well as the under parts, 

 are white. The sexes can be recognized in adult winter plumage by 

 size only. 



Food. — The other two species of phalaropes feed mainly on the 

 water, but the Wilson phalarope is more of a shore bird and obtains 

 most of its food while walking about on muddy shores or wading 



