704 THE NORTHERN PHALAROPE. 
No. 285. 
NORTHERN PHALAROPE. 
A. O, U. No. 223. Lobipes lobatus (Linn.). 
Description.—Adult female in summer: Above and on sides of breast and 
sides (narrowly) slaty with a drab cast, blackish on back and scapulars, and edged 
here with light ochraceous; wings darker slaty gray, the greater coverts broadly 
tipped with white, forming a transverse bar; sides of neck and lower throat 
rufous,—pure on sides, more or less mixed with slaty gray on throat; chin and 
underparts entirely white ; bill black; feet yellow, lobate and semipalmate, most ex- 
tensively between middle and outer toes. Adult male: Similar, slightly smaller, 
and of duller coloration, save that the black of back is more decided, and the och- 
raceous edgings of upperparts deeper. Adults in winter: \Vithout rufous; more 
extensively white; crown and auriculars (connecting below eye with a similar spot 
in front of eye) and median stripe of hind-neck dusky gray; the rest white; re- 
maining upperparts blackish (centrally) and dusky gray, extensively edged and 
striped with cream-buff and white; wing-bar as before; sides of breast grayish 
clouded. Jmmature: Similar to adult in winter, but with more black above; 
breast usually tinged with buffy or brownish. Length 7.50 (190.5); wing 4.53 
(115.1); tail 2.02 (51.3); bill 85 (21.6); tarsus .77 (19.6); middle toe and claw 
80 (20.3). 
Recognition Marks.—Chewink size; slaty gray, rufous, and white of head 
and neck in spring plumage; slender, black bill, less than one inch long, with 
scalloped feet, distinctive in any plumage. 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. Nest: a slight depression in the 
ground, lined with moss and grass. Eggs: 3 or 4, olive-buff or pale olive-gray, 
heavily speckled, spotted or blotched with dark brown. Av. size, 1.19 x .83 
(30.2 X 21.1). 
General Range.—Northern portions of northern hemisphere, breeding in 
Arctic latitudes; south in winter to the tropics. 
Range in Washington.—Common migrant along the coast; less common on 
Puget Sound; occasional in the interior. 
Authorities.—Phalaropus hyperboreus (Linn.) Temm., Baird, Rep Pac. 
R. R. Surv. IX. 706. T. C&S. D*. B. E. 
Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. P'. B. E. 
NOTHING can exceed the exquisite grace of this delicate bird as it moves 
about, not at the water's edge, like other waders which it so closely resembles 
in appearance, but upon the surface of a pool or even on the bosom of the deep. 
As it swims it nods with every stroke, turns at a thought to snatch some float- 
ing sea-morsel, or flits away with as little provocation as that afforded the 
bursting bubble of foam, its late brother. 7’ alaskit, the Quillayutes call them, 
and altho we presume the name has nothing to do with Alaska, the behavior of 
the birds as they pause for a moment and are off again is very suggestive of 
