RED PHALAROPE. 125 



are not molested, "Mud-hens" not being generally looked upon as 

 game. 



The Coots are strong of wing, good swimmers, and capable of 

 enduring both cold and fatigue. They are very abundant throughout 

 the North- West, their haunts being in the marshes, for which their 

 lobed feet are admirably adapted. There they spend the summer 

 and find the enjoyment peculiar to their race. In the fall they 

 assemble in vast flocks and generally all disappear at once during the 

 night. In Alaska, only one wanderer of the species is i-eported. 

 There is a similar report from Greenland, which is its most northerly 

 record. 



Order LIMICOL^. Shore Birds. 



Family PHALAROPODID^. 



Genus CRYMOPHILUS Yieillot. 



CRYMOPHILUS FULICARIUS (Lixx.). 



88. Red Phalarope. (222) 



All 11/ f: — With the under parts, purplish chestnut of varial)le intensity, white 

 in the young; above, variegated with Wackish and tawnj'. Length, 7-8 inches; 

 wing, 5; tail, 2f ; bill, 1, yellowish, black-tipped; tarsus, §. greenish. 



Hab. — Northern parts of the northern hemisphere, breeding in the Arctic 

 regions, and migrating south in winter; in the United States south to the 

 Middle State, Ohio, Illinois and Cape St. Lucas; chiefly maritime. 



Nest, a liollow in the ground lined with dry grass. 



Eggs, three or foiir, variable in color, usually Itrownish-olive, spotted oi- 

 l)lotched with dark chocolate-brown. 



Yast numbers of Phalaropes breed in tSpitzbergen, and on the 

 shores of the Polar Sea. At the approach of winter they retire to 

 the south, but in these migratory journeys they follow the line of 

 the sea coast, so that the stragglers we see inland are most likely 

 bewildered by fog, or driven by st(n*m away fi'om their associates 

 and their regular course. 



Dr. Garnier saw a flock of six, one of which he secured, at 

 Mitchell's Bay, near St. Clair, in the fall of 1880; and on the 17th 

 of November, 1882, Mr. Brooks, of Milton, shot a single bird, which 

 he found swimming alone on Hamilton Bay, a little way out from 

 Dynes' place. On the 21st of October, 1886, Mr. White shot one 

 on the Rideau River, and on the 1st September, 1888, he got a 

 second specimen on the River Ottawa, which completes the record 

 for Ontario, so far as 1 know at present. 



