"""isgo'"'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 497 



solitary after these birds are gone, although there are thousands of other birds there. 

 (R. H. Hunter in MSS.) 



Arrives early in spring, as soon as the ice goes out, and remains until it freezes up 

 entirely, often staying about open holes in the ice until the last drop of water has 

 disappeared from sight. On its first arrival in the spring and throughout the breed- 

 ing; season its habits much resemble those of the true rails, and it is continually 

 skulking and hiding among the rank vegetation in which it resides ; but after the 

 young have acquired strength and confidence in themselves a change takes place in 

 their habits. They now gather into large flocks (several times I have seen over a 

 hundred together) and betake themselves to the open water, where thty may be seen 

 swimmiug and diving, like a lot of blue-bills or red-heads, rather than rails; at 

 this time they will, if approached, rise high in the air and make long flights over 

 and around the marsh they inhabit ; this they will do all day long, but at dark they 

 retire into the high rushes to roost. All the other birds of this family I have found 

 at times in dry grassy meadows or amongst low scrub, but the coot never seems to 

 leave the more watery parts of the marsh. (Nash in MSS.) 



65. Phalaropus lobatus. Northern Phalarope. 



Irregular migrant. Winnipeg: Transient visitor; not common; ap- 

 pears in spring and fall about Reaburn marshes (Hine). Common 

 autumn visitor to Portage la Prairie, and very abundant at the prairie 

 sloughs near Wiunepeg, where I saw immense flocks of them in August 

 and September, 1886 (Nash). 



66. Phalaropus tricolor. Wilson's Phalarope. 



Summer resident; breeds throughout the country from Red River 

 to the Rockies along the line ; in suitable places common, though never 

 observed in large numbers at anyone place (Coues). Winnipeg: Com- 

 mon on the prairies in spring; breeding at Seaborn and Lake Winni- 

 peg (Hine). Eighteen miles south of Brandon, a pair observed June 

 15, 1882 (Wood). Breeding around ponds at Moose Mountain, July 24, 

 1880 (Macoun), " P. lohatus Ord," Severn House (Murray). 



June 15, 1887, 18 miles south of Brandon, saw a splendid pair of (Wilson's) Phala- 

 rope swimming on a pool only a few yards away ; one of them kept rising and flying 

 around, and I could distinguish the beautiful red and black neck quite plainly, ( Wood). 



67. Recurvirostra americana. American Avocet. 



A western bird, very rare in Manitoba. Winnipeg: Rare; straggler 

 along the Red River (Hine). Have killed the bird along the Souris, 

 southwest of Plum Creek; in the museum of the Geological Survey at 

 Ottawa is a specimen of the Avocet, marked from Manitoba (R. H. 

 Hunter). (Professor Macoun tells me that the locality of this specimen 

 is doubtful.— E. E. T.) Very abundant around saline ponds and lakes 

 throughout the Northwest ; shot at the base of the Coteau du Missouri, 

 July 25, 1880 (Macoun). Qu'Appelle: Occasionally here; plentiful on 

 the alkali ponds west (Guernsey). 

 Proc. N. M. 90 32 



