FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



its patriotic fellow countrymen may take as an- 

 other consideration in its favor), breeding mostly 

 inland, and comparatively rare on both coasts even 

 in its migrations, which, like others of our North 

 American water-birds, it extends for some, to me 

 unimaginable, reason as far south as Patagonia. 



The two other species are summer residents 

 of the arctic and sub-arctic portions of the north- 

 ern hemisphere in general, eastern and western, 

 and winter nobody knows where, supposedly on 

 the southern oceans. 



The commonest one hereabout is the Northern, 

 as it is also the smallest. It is to be hoped that 

 they will be as numerous this season as they 

 were a year ago, and stay with us as long. Then 

 they remained for many weeks, or were many 

 weeks in passing (from August i6 to October 21 

 by my records), and could be seen almost any 

 day, a dozen or more at once, swimming in small 

 pools close beside the boulevard, where, as they 

 well deserved, they attracted much attention even 

 from the occupants of carriages and automobiles, 

 which went rattling and booming past almost 

 continuously. 



At that season, in undress uniform, they are 



best distinguished from the red phalarope (called 



also, from its winter dress, the gray phalarope) 



by their smaller heads and their peculiarly slim 



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