BED PHALAEOPE 321 



surface white, washed with brownish on flanks. Natal plumage: Ground color 

 of head buff, darkest and most reddish on forehead and crown; narrow stripe 

 from bill to eye, and broad stripe on each side of crown black; eye region 

 whitish; bill yellowish, dark at tip; back a mixed pattern of black, reddish 

 buff and white; chin, throat and breast buff; belly whitish; flanks washed with 

 buff; legs and feet (dried) yellowish brown. 



Marks for field identification — Small size, chunky form, absence of spot- 

 ting, streaking or barring on under surface, white bar across wing, under sur- 

 face chiefly reddish brown in spring, with white cheek-patch, mixed white and 

 dull red in fall, and pure white in winter; neck short and thick (thicker than 

 in Northern Phalarope) ; wings not markedly different in color from back; 

 spends much of time swimming on water, and, within our borders, is rarely if 

 at all, found feeding on shore; "spins" about rapidly from time to time 

 while feeding on surface of water. 



Voice — A low and musical cUnk, clink (Nelson, 1887, p. 97). 



Nest — Close to or in near vicinity of small fresh or brackish pools; com- 

 monly only a moderate depression in damp ground, without lining, or else a 

 rather deep depression sunk in the top of mossy hummock, with a thin lining 

 of dry grasses (Nelson, loc. cit., and Grinnell, 1900, p. 20). 



Eggs — 3 to 4, pear-shaped, measuring in inches, 1.07 to 1.33 by 0.85 to 0.90 

 (in millimeters, 27.2 to 33.8 by 21.6 to 22.8); ground-color greenish olive, light 

 or dark buff, or even a grayish olive w'ith large or small markings of dark 

 brown, sometimes aggregated about the larger end forming a zone of dark 

 color, or else rather evenly distributed over the whole egg; differ from eggs 

 of Northern Phalarope only by slightly larger average size (authors). 



General distribution — Almost world-wide. Breeding range circumpolar; 

 in North America extends north to Ellesmere Land, Melville Island, and 

 Point Barrow, and south to St. Michael, Alaska, central Mackenzie, central 

 Keewatin, Hudson Strait, and southern Greenland. Winters in Eastern Hemi- 

 sphere south to Morocco, India, China and New Zealand. In Western Hemi- 

 sphere probably winters in large part on southern oceans. Common offshore 

 in both migrations on Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to vicinity of Massa- 

 chusetts, but not known between that region and coast of Argentina. Common 

 at times, chiefly during migration, on Pacific coast from Alaska to southern 

 end of Lower California, and again off coast of Chile (Cooke, 1910, pp. 14-16). 



Distbibutiox in California — Abundant transient along the seacoast during 

 both migrations. Northward spring migration lasts from late April to early 

 June. Southward migration lasts from first of August to late November or 

 early December. A few stragglers have been taken near Monterey in Decem- 

 ber and January (Beck, 1910, p. 70), and some probably winter around the 

 Santa Barbara Islands and off the coast near San Diego. Eecorded inland 

 only at Stockton, one specimen, October 10, 1890 (Belding, MS), Pasadena 

 (Grinnell, 1898, p. 16), and Los Angeles (Willett, 1912a, p. 34). 



The Red, or Gray, Phalarope is the most maritime of the three 

 species of phalaropes and for that reason comes under observation 

 of fewer persons. The migrating flocks begin to pass northward 

 about the last of April, and from that time to the first of June (in 

 two eases June 3), the species is abundant in the bays along our 

 coast and on the adjacent ocean. The return migration sets in early 

 in August (earliest instance August 2) and lasts at least through 



