372 PHALAROPUS FUL1CARIUS. 



by the rivers which empty into the bay. These floating patches are the chosen resorts of 

 the Northern Phalaropes when on their way southward from their northern breeding grounds 

 in autumn. Here they remain for a short time, then depart further south. When they 

 are migrating, if it chances to be stormy, occasionally a little group will stray on shore 

 and haunt the pools along the beaches, looking and acting much like Peeps, but, as a rule, 

 they remain at sea, excepting when breeding. During the winter, I have frequently met 

 with them in large flocks, feeding on those floating islands of gulf weed which lie on the 

 water off the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas. They appeared to be feeding on small 

 mollusks, etc., which live on the sea Aveed, running about on it much as the small Sand- 

 pipers do on land, and whenever the steamers on which I have been, approached too near 

 them, they would rise, uttering a shrill peep, and alight on the next patch. 



I have seen these Phalaropes many miles from land during all hours of the day, even 

 late in the afternoon when a storm was imminent. Where they go for safety when those 

 gales, for which the region about Cape Hatteras is famous, sweep over the ocean, I know 

 not. It is possible that they retreat to the calmer waters of the Sounds at such times but 

 I have looked for them in vain, both during and after gales, in Pamplico Sound which is 

 just opposite the point where they are most common at sea. They migrate northward in 

 spring, breeding in the Arctic Regions. 



PHALAROPUS PULICABITJS 



Red 1'halarope. 



Phalaropusfulicarius Box., Obs. Wils.; 1825, 232. 

 DESCRIPTION. 



SP. Cn. Form, rather slender. Size, small. Bill, but little longer than head, stout, and much flattened. Legs, short. 

 Lateral toe membranes, scalloped at each phalangeal joint but the basal ones are not as large as in the preceding species. 

 Tail, rounded. Tongue, rather wide and fleshy, becoming horny at tip which is rounded. 



Color. Adult. Throat and upper parts, dark-brown, becoming ashy on wing-; and tail, with feathers of back broad- 

 ly edged with yellowish-rufous. Tips of secondaries, stripe on side of head, under wing coverts, and axillaries, white. 

 Remainder of under parts, deep brownish-red, becoming purplish on abdomen, and tinged with ashy on breast. 



Young. Yellowish-brown above, mottled with dusky , darkest on head and wings. Tips of secondaries, forehead, and 

 entire under parts, white. Bill, greenish, iris and feet, brown, in all stages. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Known from the two preceding species by the broad, stout, much flattened bill which is scarcely longer than head. 

 Distributed, in summer, throughout the Arctic Regions; wintering in the South. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Average measurements of specimens from Eastern North America. Length, 8' 15; stretch, 15-50; wing, 7'25; tail,2'50; 

 bill, -95; tarsus, -80. Longest specimen, 8-75; greatest extent of wing, 16'00; longest wing, 7'50; tail, 275; bill, I'OO; 

 tarsus, -85. Shortest specimen, 7'50; smallest extent of wing, 15'OG; shortest wing, 7'00; tail, 2'25; bill, '90; tarsus, '75. 



DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 



Eyy*, placed on the ground in a slight depression of the soil, on a little grass, etc. They are from two to four in num-> 

 ber, pyriform in shape, varying from greenish to yellowish-ash in color, spotted and blotched irregularly, thickly, and us- 

 ually coarsely, with brown of varying shades. Dimensions from '85 x 1'15 to 'HOx 1'30. 



HABITS. 



The Red Phalaropes are by far the rarest of the genus in the United States but are, 

 however, occasionally met with on the eastern coast in autumn. Of two specimens now 

 in the collection of the Bangs Brothers, one was obtained in Boston Market a year or two 



