60 WATER BIRDS 
am positive that the mother was not near the nest at 
any time after the eggs were laid. The male brooded 
continually, leaving only when necessary to obtain food. 
Almost as soon as the down was dry on the chicks they 
ran out of the nest like little sandpipers, and followed 
him about up and down the beach, picking up their 
own food, before they were ten hours old, and the 
second day they were swimming in the shallow water 
as gayly as any of the adult birds. 
The Phalaropes are not rare along the eastern part of 
California, and doubtless nest in other marshes than 
those bordering some parts of Lake Tahoe. They breed 
there quite abundantly, and their sandpiper-like cries 
mingle with the plaintive notes of the killdeer whenever 
anyone enters the nesting place. Like the killdeer, also, 
the Phalarope will fly restlessly back and forth over its 
home, revealing by its very anxiety what it is most 
anxious to conceal. Wilson Phalarope is exclusively 
an American species, and is less common on the coasts 
than in the interior. 
225. AMERICAN AVOCET. — Recurvirostra americana. 
Famity: The Avocets and Stilts. 
Length: 17.00. 
Adults in Summer: Head, neck, shoulders, and chest uniform light 
reddish brown, merging to buff at base of bill; rump, wing-patches, 
and belly white ; scapulars and primaries black ; bill long, black, and 
curved upward ; feet and legs grayish blue. 
Adults in Winter: Head, neck, and chest grayish white ; otherwise as 
in summer. 
Downy Young: Upper parts grayish, mottled with darker ; under parts 
lighter, nearly white on throat and chest; dark, almost black, 
splatches on the rump and shoulders. 
