NORTHERN PHALAROPE 331 



indistinguishable from those of the Red Phalarope, save that the latter 

 average slightly the larger. 



"When a person approaches the nest of a Northern Phalarope, the 

 sitting bird slips quietly from the nest while the intruder is twenty 

 yards or more away, and flies to the surface of a nearby pond wliere 

 it commences feeding unconcernedly, giving the impression that there 

 is no nest in the vicinity. At other times the bird will employ the 

 broken-wing ruse and other tactics common to nesting birds. During 

 the nesting period the adults remain close around the nest site ; when 

 foraging they follow one another about attentively. According to 

 different authors the male of this species does half or all of the work 

 of incubation. Indeed, except for the primary function of laying 

 eggs, the male performs all or most of the duties assumed by the 

 female in other species of birds. As a result of the low swampy 

 nature of the ground chosen for the nesting site many of the nests 

 are at times inundated by high tides and the eggs destroyed (Grinnell, 

 loc. cit.). By the latter part of July (20th to 27th) the young are 

 fully fledged and on the wing, feeding with the adults. 



The fall molt seems to extend through a considerable portion of 

 the period from July to September. At least among the many speci- 

 mens taken in the fall along our coast varying conditions of the 

 plumage are shown, though not one is in full winter plumage. 



While often appearing in great numbers on the ocean during 

 migration, the flocks are smaller on fresh water inland, perhaps thirty 

 individuals being the average number found in a flock. The flight is 

 usually quite direct, without the zig-zag movements of the sandpipers, 

 but at times it is erratic. 



Heavy winds on the ocean sometimes prove disastrous to the 

 migrating hosts of Northern Phalaropes. Chapman (1905, p. 273) 

 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 (1912, p. 228) 

 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 (1902a, p. 59) found that "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 the bites of 

 fishes." Emerson (1904, pp. 37, 38) 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. 



