424 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



FAMILY PHALAROPODID^. THE PHALAROPES. 



Feathers of breast compact, duck-like; legs with transverse scutellse before and 

 behind; toes to the tips with a lateral margin, more or less indented at the joints, 

 the hinder with a feeble lobe; bill equal to or longer than the head, the lateral groove 

 extending nearly to the tip. 



PHALAROPUS, BRISSON. 

 Membrane of toes scolloped at the joints. 



PHALAROPUS HYPERBOREUS. Temm. 

 The Northern Phalarope. 



Tringa hyperborea, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 249. 



Phalaropus hyperboreus, Temm. Man., II. (1820) 709. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. 

 (1835)118; V. 595. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill short, straight, pointed ; wings long ; tail short ; legs short. 



Adult. Neck encircled with a ring of bright-ferruginous, and a stripe of the 

 same on each side; head above and neck behind sooty-ash; back, wings, and tail, 

 brownish-black, paler on the rump, mixed with bright-ferruginous on the back; tips 

 of greater wing coverts white ; sides and flanks ash}'-, frequently mixed with red- 

 dish ; throat, breast, and abdomen white ; bill and legs dark ; iris dark-brown. 



Young. Entire upper parts brownish-black ; many feathers edged and tipped 

 with dull yellow and ashy ; under parts white ; tips of greater wing coverts white. 



Total length, about seven inches ; wing, four and half; tail, two and a quarter ; 

 bill, one; tarsus, three-fourths of an inch. 



THE Northern Phalarope is rarely found on the seacoast 

 of New England in the spring and autumn migrations ; 

 appearing in the former about the 10th of May, and in the 

 latter about the 25th of August. The migrations are per- 

 formed by the birds in small flocks out at sea ; and it is only 

 when they are driven into shore by heavy winds and storms 

 that they are found here, and then scarcely more than two or 

 three birds are taken in a season. This species is equally a 

 swimmer and wader. When on the water, it has the appear- 

 ance of a small Gull or Tern, swimming with great elegance 



