VIRGINIA RAIL 261 



three feet of the observers. She fluffed up her feathers in the manner of 

 a brooding hen, and uttered many chicks and whistles which were answered 

 by the louder notes of the male. 



Later the same day the nest was again visited. The female was absent, 

 but soon appeared, after her mate had whistled, swimming and wading 

 toward the nest across a bit of open water. By the evening of the nine- 

 teenth, another q^^ had hatched, and by the morning of the twentieth, 

 2 more ; the last Qg^ hatched that afternoon. On the morning of June 21, 

 the family had departed. Nothing more was seen of them, save for one 

 that showed itself for a moment one day in late July. 



One bird, chiefly in the blackish juvenal plumage, was taken at the same 

 locality, July 24, 1920. 



Mud-hen. Fulica americana Gmelin 



Field characters. — Size of a small duck but ■with short, whitish bill; front toes with 

 broad flaps or lobes, instead of complete webs. Plumage chiefly dark slate; head and 

 neck black; a white V on under side of up-tilted tail. Walks or swims with fore-and- 

 aft movement of head in unison with tread of feet ; rises from water with labored effort, 

 and flies with the large feet extending bulkily beyond end of tail. Voice : An explosive 

 pulque, or plop, with hollow intonation. 



Occurrence. — Eesident in small numbers on slower streams west of foothills; transient 

 on lower foothill streams elsewhere in the region, and summer visitant to smaller lakes 

 east of Sierra Nevada. 



To unobserving persons the Mud-hen or ' ' coot ' ' often passes for a duck, 

 but students of systematic ornithology recognize it as a forward-pushing 

 relative of the retiring rails. The Mud-hen is a bird of open water; at 

 times it may be seen from the windows of the railroad train passing 

 through the lower Merced Caiion, swimming slowly about on the quieter 

 stretches of the river in search of food, or, when excited, rising with 

 paddling feet and heavily beating wings to take a direct course away from 

 the source of fright. 



Mud-hens occasionally stray up the rivers well into the western foothills, 

 for example, one was seen at Kittredge, October 22. In migration they 

 visit certain lakes east of the Sierran crest other than those on which they 

 nest ; a flock of a hundred or more was seen on June Lake, near Reversed 

 Peak, September 17, 1915. 



Northern Phalarope. Lobipes lobatus (Linnaeus) 



Field characters. — A 'wader' much smaller than Killdeer; bill needle-like. Whole 

 under surface pure white; back dark brown in spring and summer, pearl gray in fall 

 and winter; sides of neck rusty brown in spring and summer. Swims buoyantly in 

 companies on open water. 



