IN THE ESTERO 



thought the creature must surely be crippled, 

 and was pitying him accordingly, when a dog 

 suddenly ran near, and whiff! away went the 

 bird as lively as a cricket. The next morning, to 

 my intense delight, both he and his splendid high- 

 colored mate were in the same spot, the only 

 pair of the kind that I have ever seen together. 

 They flew away together, and let us hope are to- 

 gether still. 



Northern phalaropes have resort to a remark- 

 ably taking and ingenious device when feeding in 

 shallow water. Seated on the surface, they whirl 

 rapidly round and round like a top or a dancing 

 dervish. I have seen numbers of them thus curi- 

 ously engaged in a small pool. Two that I no- 

 ticed a few days ago within a yard of each other 

 were revolving in opposite directions, one from 

 right to left, the other from left to right. It was 

 almost dizzying to look at them. In fact, a fellow 

 observer, by no means a weakling, has assured 

 me that on one occasion the sight actually affected 

 him with nausea, so that he was obliged to turn 

 away his head to recover himself. 



Northern phalaropes have this habit, I say. I 

 happen never to have seen either of the two other 

 species indulging in it. But not for a moment 

 will I think of asserting that they never do, lest 

 to-morrow or the day after, to my chagrin, I go 

 55 



