PHALAROPES 149 



breeding season many nest about the inland waters of the north 

 as well as in salt water localities. 



The female bird is master of ceremonies in this tribe, doing 

 the courting and obliging her mate to incubate while she is 

 enjoying life. They are excellent swimmers, feeding on surface 

 forms of marine life such as Crustacea and the myriad other 

 insignificant forms of marine life. 



Genus PHALAROPUS Brisson. 

 Subgenus PHALAROPUS. 



223. Phalaropus lohatus (Linn.). Northern Phalarope. 



Plumage of adult female in summer: above a general slaty gray with 

 huffish edgings to feathers of back and scapulars ; front and sides of neck 

 mixed rufous and slaty gray ; under parts white. Plumage of adult male in 

 summer : colors duller than those of the female ; upper parts blackish with 

 more ochraceous edgings ; chest mixed white and grayish ; rufous confined 

 to sides of neck. Plumage of adults in winter: forehead, line over eye, 

 sides of head and neck, tips of greater wing coverts and under parts white ; 

 top of head and part of chest grayish. Immature plumage : forehead, stripe 

 in ear region, lores and below white ; blackish above with huffish edgings 

 to feathers. Wing 4.10 to 4.50; culmen 0.88; tarsus 0.78. Feet with lobe 

 like membranes. 



Geog. Dist. — Northern portions of northern hemisphere, breeding in the 

 far north and migrating south in winter to the tropics. 



County Records. — Cumberland; rare, (Brock); one in fall of 1901, (Lord). 

 Franklin; accidental, (Richards). Hancock; spring and fall migrant, 

 (Knight). Knox; migrant, (Norton). Penobscot ; one taken by Mr. Fuller 

 of Newport, ( Hardy) . Piscataquis ; one shot on Sebec River near Milo, May 

 3, 1897, and sent to me in the flesh by William Cooper, (Knight). Sagada- 

 hoc; common, (Spinney). Somerset; one secured near Pittsfield, September 

 1, 1898, (Morrell, Me. Sp. Nov. 1898, p. 20). Waldo; I saw dozens in the 

 water between Castine and Belfast in late winter, February, 1900, (Knight). 

 Washington; plenty spring and fall, (Boardman). 



Not rare along the coast from September to November and 

 in April and May, occasionally also in late winter, while inland 

 a few stragglers occur in fall and spring. They nest quite 

 generally along the coast of South Greenland (Hagerup). The 

 nest is a mere hollow in the ground lined with a little grass. 



