^ ' ''^ PHALAROPLIS FULJCARIUS. 



by the rivers whicli empty into the bay. These tluatiiig patches are the chosen resorts of 

 the Northern Phalaropes when on their way southward from their northern breeding grounds 

 in autumn. Here they remain for a short time, then depart further south. When they 

 are migrating, if it chances to be stormy, occasionally a little group will stray on shore 

 and haunt the pools along the beaches, looking and acting much like Peeps, but, as a rule,, 

 they remain al sea, excepting when breeding. During the winter, I have frequently met 

 with them in large flocks, feeding on those floating islands of gulf weed which lie on the 

 Wilier off the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas. They appeared to be feeding on small 

 mollusks, etc., which live on the sea weed, running about on it much as the small Sand- 

 pipers do on land, and whenever the steamers on which I have been, approached too near 

 them, they would rise, uttering a shrill peep, and alight on the next patch. 



I have seen these Phalaropes many miles from land during all hours of the day, even 

 late in the afternoon when a storm was imminent. Where they go for safety when those 

 gales, for which the region about Cape Ilatteras is famous, sweep over the ocean, I know 

 not. It is possible that they retreat to the calmer waters of the Sounds at such times but 

 I have looked for them in vain, both during and after gales, in Pamplico Sound which is 

 just opposite the point where they are most common at sea. They migrate northward in 

 spring, breeding in the Arctic Regions. 



PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS 

 Red I'halarope. 



Plirilimijiu.i/u/itarius Bon., Ob.«i. Wils ; 1P25, 232. 

 DESCEIPTION. 



hip. Cii. Form, rather slendei'. Size, small. Bill, hut little longer than head, stciut, ami much flattened. Legs, short. 

 Lateral toe memliraDes, scalloped at each plialanf^eal joint but the basal ones are not as large as in the preceding species. 

 Tail, rounded. Tongue, rather wide and fleshy, beconiing horny at tip which is rounded. 



Color. Adult. Throat and upper parts, dark-brown, becoming ashy on wing~ and tail, with feathers of back broad- 

 ly edged with yellowish-rufous. Tips of second^iries, stripe on side of head, under wing overts, and axillaries, white. 

 Remainder of under parts, deep brownish-red, bcoming purplish on ahJoiuen, and tinged with ashy on brea,st. 



Youn(j. Yellowish-brown above, mottled with dusky, darkest on head and wings. Tips of .secondaries, forehead, and 

 entire under parts, white. Bill, greenish, iris and feet, brown, in all stages. 



OBSERVATIONS. 

 Known from the two preceding species by the hroad, stout, much i3attened bill which is scarcely longer than head. 

 Distributed, in summer, throughout the Arctic Regions; wintering in the South. 



DLMENSIONS. 

 Average measurements of specimens from Kastern North America. Length, 8' 15; stroti-h, 15 SO; wing, 7-25; tail,2'£0; 

 liill, OS: tai-sus, -80. Longest "jjeeimen, 8-75; greatest extent of wing, 16-0('; hmgest wing, 7-50; tail, 2 75, hill, 100; 

 »ai-sus, 85. SI'ortest specimen, 7'50; smallest ejctent of wing, 15-00: shortest wing, 7'00; tail, 225, \>\.., 90; tarsus, -75. 



nnSt'RIl'TKKV OF NESTS AND EGGS. 

 f-l/i/^j placed on the ground in a slight de|)ression of tlie soil, on a little grass, etc. Tiiey are fr. ;a two to four in num- 

 ber, pyriforni in shape, T;irying fran greenish t.i yellowish-ash in color, sp.itted and blotched irrej;u;;v !>, thickly, and us- 

 ually Coarsely, with brown of varying similes. Dimeusiims from 'SSx 1'15 ^o ^Kt.x ISO. 



HABII'S. 

 The Red Phalaropes are by far the rarest of the genus in the United States but are, 

 however, occasionally met with on the eastern coast in autumn. Of two specimens now 

 in the collection of the Bangs Brothers, one was obtained in Boston Mtirket a year or two 



