76 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



pact like a duck's to resist water. These birds undergo marked changes of plumage 

 with age and season. The bills, as well as the marginal membranes of the toes, all 

 differ in slight particulars, but the toes in all these species are united by basal webs. 

 Two species are recorded as breeding only in the Arctic regions, but they all migrate 

 southward in winter and two, at least, penetrate to the tropical countries. The 

 Phalaropes, it is stated, nest on the ground, and lay three or four olive-buff or pale 

 grayish-buff colored eggs, spotted with different shades of brown. These peculiar 

 birds, combining as they do to a certain degree, both the habits and appearance of 

 certain waders and swimmers, frequent both salt and fresh water. Their tood, it 

 is said, consists principally of aquatic insects, worms, molusca, etc. 



GENUS PHALAROPUS BRISSON. 

 P halar opus lobatus ( LINN. ) . 



Northern Phalarope. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length about 1\ inches ; extent about 14 ; bill and legs blackish ; iris brown ; the 

 bill, less than an inch long, is straight and pointed ; the wings are long, and the tail 

 is short and rounded ; membrane of toes scolloped at joints. 



" Winter plumage (adult). Forehead, superciliary stripe, sides of head and neck 

 with lower parts generally pure white ; top of head grayish, the feathers with dusky 

 shaft-streaks and whitish borders ; a blackish spot in front of eye and side of head, 

 from beneath eye, across ear-coverts mixed dusky and grayish-white ; upper parts 

 chiefly grayish ; sides of chest washed or clouded with grayish. 



" Young. Top of head dusky, with or without streaks ; back and scapulars black- 

 ish, distinctly bordered with buff or ochraceous ; middle wing-coverts bordered with 

 buff or whitish ; forehead, supra-auricular stripe, lores and lower parts white, the 

 chest and sides of breast sometimes suffused with dull brownish ; ear-coverts 

 dusky." Ridgway Manual of N. A. Birds. 



Habitat. Northern portions of northern hemisphere, breeding in Arctic latitudes ; 

 south in winter to the tropics. 



At Erie bay and about the lake shore in Erie county this phalarope 

 is found as a rather regular but not common migrant, seen most fre- 

 quently in the fall. In other sections of the state the Northern Phala- 

 rope is a rare and irregular visitor. Prof. August Kock has observed it 

 in Ly coming county as a "rare migrant." Stragglers have also been 

 captured, at irregular intervals, during recent years, about the rivers 

 Delaware, Susquehanna and Ohio. 



Phalaropus tricolor (VIEILL.)* 



Wilson's Phalarope. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length about 9 inches ; extent about 15 inches ; bill and legs black ; iris dark- 

 brown ; bill about 1 inches long, cylindrical, tapering, slender and acute ; lateral 

 membrane of all the toes even or unscolloped. 



"Winter plumage. Above plain ash-gray ; upper tail-coverts superciliary stripe 

 and lower parts white, the chest and sides of breast shaded with pale-gray. 



"Young. Top of head, back and scapulars dusky blackish, the feathers distinctly 

 bordered with buff; wing-coverts also bordered with pale buff or whitish ; upper 

 tail-coverts superciliary stripe and lower parts white, the neck tinged with buff." 

 Ridgway's Manual of N. A. Birds. 



