OcEAN WANDERERS 
occasional flocks of Phalaropes, or “ Whale-birds,”’ 
as the fishermen there call them, during August. 
Gneex;an the; middle ‘of june; 1 met a flock, of 
twenty Northern Phalaropes just off Matinicus 
Rock. But I never had any conception of the 
abundance of these pretty birds in their migrations 
until one August, off Cape Sable. The fishermen 
told me that Hags, Sea-Hens and Mother Carey’s 
Chickens were less plentiful than usual that season, 
having followed the fish elsewhere, but there were 
<‘ millions of ‘Sea-Geese.’’’ From their description 
I knew that these latter were Phalaropes, and I took 
an early opportunity to pay them a visit. 
I was fortunate in securing passage on a sub- 
stantial little eleven-ton schooner, manned by a 
father and two or three stout sons. It was a nice 
day with a light breeze, most favourable for the 
work in hand. We glided from the sandy cove 
with its wharf and fish-houses, and by the time that 
the white beaches and green spruce-tracts were 
becoming dim in the distance, seeming to slide away 
from us, rather than we from them, we were in the 
haunts of the Phalaropes. Flocks of them began to 
fly by, and then we passed flocks in the water, some- 
times quietly dressing their beautifully smooth 
plumage, or splashing and frolicking on the smooth 
ocean surface. Every bunch or patch of drift-weed 
supported all the Phalaropes it would hold. 
We began our fishing when the land was but 
dimly in sight. All around us the Phalaropes were 
flying and sporting, always in flocks of half a dozen 
or more. Each tiny bird, when at rest, rode lightly 
and gracefully upon the water, and I was reminded. 
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