/// North -W<'>^f C<iii«ul(i. 85 



of the old l)irds. The male bird is a very close sitter, and will 

 almost suffer himself to be trodden upon before he will leave the 

 nest, then he flutters along- in front of one's feet for some dis- 

 tanee as if wounded, making a soft, squeaking noise : he then 

 rises in the air and is joined by the female, who has been 

 feeding in some damp spot not far off", they then fly around in 

 circles, and are sometimes joined by two or three other 

 plialaropes. Most sandpipers or waders have a loud whistle 

 l)ut the phalarope is a very (piiet bird, and it has only one soft 

 note, which can be heard only close to it. It sounds some- 

 thing like the coo of a dove, or the bark of a lai-ge dog a long- 

 way off. Tliis is the only note I ever heard them utter, be- 

 sides the squeak they make when frightened ott" the nest. 

 When feeding or swimming about the sloughs they ai'e very 

 tame, and will allow you to approach within Ave or six yards 

 before taking flight or running further away. 



1 collected a tine series of eggs of the Wilst)n's phalarope. 

 They are almost as large as eggs of the spotted sandpiper, and 

 average 1.25x().9(). The grtnnid colour varies from pale clay to 

 bi'ownish drab, and is heavily overlaid with spots, blotches 

 and scratches of brown and black, i-eminding one of the 

 ptarmigan's e^g in style of colouring. They have tlie power 

 to remove their eggs, if they have been liandled. On June 

 the 10th, I found a nest of Wilscm's phalarope, at Rush Lake, 

 it contained one egg : this egg I examined, and then put it 

 back into the nest, intending to call a few days later for the 

 full set. I put some stones near the nest so as to be al)le to 

 And it again. Next day I visited the nest and found the egg 

 had gone. iVljout thirty feet away I found another nest and 

 two eggs, one of them I recognized as the egg 1 had handled 

 the day before, the bird evidently had removed the egg to 

 this nest and laid another one to it. On the high ground 

 above the slough a numl)er of Willet's and Bartram's sand- 

 pipers had their nests. The Willets were very wary, Init the 

 field-plovers were excessively tame, and when disturljed would 

 get up off their nests and walk slowly through the gi-ass. 

 The Bartram's sandpiper, also called field plover and upland 



