362 The Plover-like Birds 



are deposited about the last of May or the first of June. . . . Incubation is 

 attended to by the male alone. The female, however, keeps near, and is quick 

 to give the alarm upon the approach of danger." 



The Northern Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) is found throughout the north- 

 ern portions of the Northern Hemisphere, breeding only in the far north, but 

 migrating in winter to the southern oceans. It attains a length of seven or 

 eight inches, the female in summer being slaty gray above and white below, 

 the back being striped with buff, the wing-coverts white-tipped, and the chest 

 and sides of the neck rufous; the male is duller. In winter the plumage is 

 largely white or grayish throughout. Mr. Joseph Grinnell found them nesting 

 abundantly in the Kotzebue Sound region of Alaska, the nest being a neatly 

 molded depression in the sod near pools. The Red or Gray Phalarope (Crymo- 

 philus fulicarius} is distinguished by its broad, flattened bill, which is somewhat 

 enlarged toward the tip, and by the rich purplish cinnamon-color of the entire 

 lower parts, the winter plumage being largely pearl-gray above and white below. 

 Its distribution is practically the same as that of the last species. During the 

 winter the two last-mentioned forms are found off the coast, never visiting the 

 land unless driven there by storms. 



Sandpipers. We have now come to the advance line of the second of the 

 three subfamilies into which the Charadriidce are here separated, namely, the 

 Tringina, or Sandpipers, Godwits, etc. It is a large, very widely distributed 

 group containing a large number of genera and species, most of them of small or 

 moderate size, in which the bill is shorter than the tarsus and middle toe, and 

 is straight, or slightly curved upward or downward, while the wings incline to 

 be long and pointed. 



In the typical genus (Tringa} the bill is stout and straight, and there is a 

 well-developed hind toe. By some systematists Tringa is divided into several 

 genera, a view not adopted here. As an example we may first select the Knot, 

 Red-breast, or Robin Snipe ( T. canutus), as it is variously called. It is about 

 ten and a half inches long, the adult in summer being barred and streaked with 

 black and white and rufous above, the under parts being dull rufous and the 

 abdomen white. The immature plumage is plain brownish gray above, the 

 abdomen white, and the sides and breast more or less barred with black ; it 

 requires, it is thought, about four years to acquire the full plumage! The species 

 is found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, breeding within the Arctic Circle 

 and migrating in America to Florida and South America ; and if the Old World 

 form be the same, wintering in Africa and from the Indian peninsula to Aus- 

 tralia and New Zealand. While with us they are found along the coasts, fre- 

 quenting the seashores, mud flats, and sandy beaches in flocks, often probing 

 in the soft ground for their food, which consists of small crustaceans, mollusks, 

 worms, and aquatic insects. Forty or fifty years ago, according to Mackay, 

 they were often present at many points along the Atlantic coast during the 

 migrations in countless thousands, but at the present time it is rare that more 

 than fifty or a hundred birds are seen by a single person in a year. Although 

 not of a specially fine flavor, they have always been a favorite with gunners, 



