BIRDS OF NEW YORK 289 



migrations, probably surpassing all other orders in the development of the 

 migratory instinct, several of our species breeding on the arctic islands 

 and wintering on the plains of Patagonia. Their voices are mellow, piping, 

 or whistling, and can be heard from a long distance. Their plumage is 

 mottled or varied. They are prized as game birds, the Woodcock, Snipe, 

 Golden plover and Upland plover being in high repute with sportsmen 

 and epicures. 



Family F-HALAROPIOAE 



Phalaropes 



Small birds with dense, ducklike plumage, and lobate feet ; tarsus com- 

 pressed and serrulate behind; the lobes or toe margins scalloped in at the 

 Joints; hallux slightly lobed; bill as long, or longer, than head, grooved for 

 three fourths or more of its length, rather hardened and pointed at the tip. 



Phalaropes are good swimmers and are frequently seen far out at sea 

 resting on the water like flocks of diminutive ducks. They often swim 

 while feeding, whirling about in the shallow water to stir up the minute 

 insects from the bottom, and seizing them as they are swept about in the 

 little whirlpool thus created [Chapman]. The female Phalarope is larger 

 and more brightly colored than the male. She does the courting and 

 turns over the duties of incubation to the male. This reversal of Nature's 

 usual order in reproductive habits is not confined to this family, but is 

 also characteristic of the Painted snipe (Rostratula) of the Oriental, Ethi- 

 opian and neotropical regions, as well as of the Old World Hemipodes 

 (Turnicidae). 



Phalaropus fulicarius (Linnaeus) 

 Red Phalarope 



Plate 28 



Tringa fulicaria Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:148 

 Phalaropus fulicarius DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 268, fig. 232 

 Cymophilus fulicarius A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 222 



phala'ropus, Gr. <^>oAap6s, coot; ttovs, foot; fulicd'rius, Lat. cootlike; fulica, Lat., a coot 



Description. Bill depressed, broad and somewhat spatulate; feet 

 semipalmate and broadly scallop-lobed. Female in summer: Under parts 



