° 1912 J Correspondence. 129 



June is preeminently the breeding month for tliis phalarope. Numerous 

 June records are at hand for different locahties in Canada and Alaska, 

 comparatively few are as late as July. It is significant that of 70 nests 

 found by McFarland at Fort Anderson, July 10 was the latest date, most 

 of them, even in this far northern locahty, being in June. In more south- 

 ern localities, the bird would naturally be expected to nest earlier. 



The fall migration of the Northern Phalarope is well under way by the 

 middle of July, so that the mere presence of the birds anywhere after that 

 date cannot be accepted as definite proof of breeding. The two birds seen 

 by Audubon July 29 were doubtless migrants, and the date agrees well with 

 the dates at which migrating phalaropes have been noted by subsequent 

 observers. Brewster found no nests in the Gulf of St. Lawrence region, 

 and does not record the bird as absolutely identified by him until July 25; 

 Bigelow found no nests, and saw no birds until July 23. It is true that in 

 his 'Birds of Northeastern Labrador' published in 'The Auk' for January, 

 1902, he gives the bird as "Common. Breeding in almost all the suitable 

 marshes; occasionally very abundant off-shore." This again on its face 

 value would be satisfactory as to the essential fact that this phalarope breeds 

 on the Labrador coast but in a recent letter to Prof. Cooke, Mr. Bigelow 

 states that he did not find nest or eggs of the bird but found the birds in the 

 marshes at Pontes Cove on July 23 [thus well within the migrating period], 

 and adds that his reason for stating that they breed there was that the 

 natives assured him the birds observed [in 1902] were nesting. While 

 this testimony by the natives may have been convincing to Mr. Bigelow, 

 it cannot, we submit, without further evidence, be accepted as definitely 

 estabhshing the breeding of the species in the locality in question, especially 

 when is taken into account the late date, July 23. 



Townsend and Allen found neither nests nor young, and saw no birds 

 until July 27. Hence the statement in their 'Birds of Labrador' that. 

 "The Northern Phalarope breeds along the entire Labrador coast in 

 freshwater marshes on the borders of ponds and lakes " would appear to 

 have been based on the statements of the authors they subsequently name 

 (Audubon, Low, Bigelow, Turner and Spreadborough) rather than on 

 their own observations. If the species really breeds generally on tlje 

 Labrador coast, it should have been noted by Coues, who had far better 

 opportunity of observation than any of the observers above mentioned. 

 As a matter of fact he did not find the bird at all, while Low, who after- 

 wards visited the same district, does not mention meeting with the bird 

 in the breeding season until June 13, when he was far inland from "Labra- 

 dor" near the head of the Hamilton River. Hpreadborough's account 

 refers to James Bay and hence has nothing to do with the Labrador coast. 

 So that as the matter now stands, "Ungava Bay, about 59° N. (Turner)" 

 is the most southern certain record of the breeding of the Northern Phala- 

 rope on the Atlantic coast, as is given in Bulletin 35,' Distribution and 

 Migration of North American Shorebirds.' 



A word may be added in regard to the breeding and winter ranges of the 



