IN THE ESTERO 



necks, which they habitually carry upright at full 

 length, so that, as I have heard more than one 

 person remark, they have much the appearance 

 of miniature swans. 



The red phalarope, on the other hand, as I have 

 seen it, is a stouter, bigger-headed, " chunkier "- 

 looking bird, though this last is a point of differ- 

 ence which I was compelled to find out for myself ; 

 and, having done so, as I believed, in autumn, I 

 was compelled to wait for its verification till the 

 following spring, when I had unquestioned ex- 

 amples of both species before me in complete 

 nuptial plumage. 



Any phalarope, however dressed, may be iden- 

 tified at once by the bill and feet, provided you 

 have the bird in hand ; but this, of course, to a 

 consistent " field-glass man " seldom or never hap- 

 pens. And, moreover, what he desires, and what 

 he cannot be satisfied without, is to know his 

 bird whenever he sees it, alive and out of doors. 

 To accomplish this he must exercise all patience 

 and have recourse to all possible expedients; and 

 even then, in the case of species so confusingly 

 alike as these two autumnal phalaropes, he must 

 be contented, for a long time at least, till belief 

 little by little settles into certainty, as luckily it 

 has a way of doing, to Hst his migrants with an 

 unpleasant degree of questioning. 

 53 



