118 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



place ! Birds are passing back and forth all the time. The Ring-necked and Piping 

 Plovers are about the sound-side, along with the peeps (Semipalmated and Least 

 Sandpipers) and Red-backed Sandpipers. Black-bellied Plover come and go once 

 in awhile stopping to feed along with the smaller species. Here and there a turn- 

 stone or two shows large among the little 'Sea-chickens.' Greater and Lesser 

 Yellow-legs are in and about the shallow pools of the marsh-borders, while over on 

 the marsh itself some curlews are usually in evidence. Louisiana and Little Blue 

 Heron dot the flat marshland, with a few Snowy and white-plumaged Little Blue 

 Herons showing up conspicuously against the bright green of the salt-marsh grass. 

 A Least Tern shrills overhead and a Laughing Gull cackles as he goes by. On the 

 hot, dry sand-flats the Wilson's Plover run, and hide by standing still. A pair of 

 Oyster-catchers are hard to drive from one wide, rolling expanse of yellow sand, 

 where the worn and rounded shell-fragments show that the sea has some time in the 

 past joined sound and ocean during a high tide and heavy southerly gale. They 

 evidently have a nest near by, but a diligent search fails to discover it. 



" As the sun drops low and the tide is again on the ebb the morning's experiences 

 may be repeated; and when you seek the old camp at night to feed and rest the 

 bodily man, you will feel that the spiritual and aesthetic sides of your ego have that 

 day been bidden to a feast and have risen therefrom strengthened and refreshed." 

 H. H. BRIMLEY. 



KEY TO FAMILIES 



1. Toes lobate, or with distinct lateral membranes; tarsus extremely compressed. (Phala- 

 ropes.) Phalaropodidoe. 



1. Toes not lobate, tarsus not specially compressed. See 2. 



2. Tarsus more than twice middle toe with claw; naked part of tibia much longer than middle 



toe with claw. (Avocets and Stilts.) Recurvirostridos. 



2. Tarsus less than twice middle toe with claw; naked portion of tibia shorter than middle toe 



with claw. See 3. 



3. Tarsus scutellate in front. See 4. 



3. Tarsus reticulate in front. See 5. 



4. Bill slender with a bluntish tip. (Snipes and Sandpipers.) Scolopacidoe. 



4. Bill stout, hard, pointed, and wedge-shaped at tip. (Turnstones.) Aphrizidoe. 



5. Bill not longer than tarsus, not compressed, contracted behind the horny tip, shaped some- 



what like a pigeon's bill. (Plovers.) Charadriidoe. 

 5. Bill longer than tarsus, much compressed at tip. (Oyster-catchers.) Hoematopodidce. 



18. FAMILY PHALAROPODIDOE. PHALAROPES 



KEY TO GENERA 



A small family of three genera and as many species, all of which have been 

 taken in our State. 



1. Bill subulate, very slender. Membrane of toes scalloped. Lobipes. 



1. Bill as above. Membrane of toes not scalloped. Steganopus. 



1. Bill stoutish, flattened, with lancet-shaped tip. Membrane of toes scalloped. Phalaropus* 



Genus Phalaropus (Briss.) 

 97. Phalaropus fulicarius (Linn.). RED PHALAROPE. 



Toes webbed at base and with scalloped lobes terminally; bill heavy, wider than deep. 

 Ad. 9 in summer. Crown and chin fuscous; cheeks white; back black, the feathers bordered 

 with cream-buff; wings gray; some of the secondaries and tips of greater coverts white; upper 



