SHORE BIKDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



PHALAROPUS TRICOLOR (Vieill.}. 



Wilson's Phalarope. 



Adult female in summer: Grown 

 and middle of back, pearl gray ; nape, 

 white; superciliary stripe, white; a 

 dusky or black streak from the eye 

 to the sides of the neck; sides of 

 upper back, chestnut, bordering the 

 gray; middle throat and breast 

 tinged with pale rufous brown ; chin, 

 white; belly, white. 



Adult male in summer : General re- 

 semblance to the female, but smaller 

 and much paler in coloration; the crown and back, more brownish. 



Adult in winter: Upper plumage, the feathers more or less edged with white; wings, fus- 

 cous, or gray brown ; coverts, edged narrowly with white ; under parts, white. 



Female: Length, 9.10 to 10.05; wing, 5.20 to 5.40; tarsus, 1.25 to 1.40; bill, 1.25 to 1.40. 

 Male: Length, 8.40 to 9.10; wing, 4 60 to 4.90; tarsus, 1.20 to 1.30; bill, 1.20 to 1.30. 



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Wilson's Palarope is a more inland species than the preceding, and is by no 

 means common on our coasts. It is abundant in some portions of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, and breeds in the United States from Illinois and Utah north- 

 ward. The nest is simply a depression in the ground lined with a little 

 grass, and the eggs are usually four in number, of dull brownish white, marked 

 and spotted with dark chocolate brown. In winter the bird occurs in South 

 America, and is claimed to wander as far south as Patagonia. In this, as with 

 the other Phalaropes, the male assumes the duties of incubation. 



