22 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA [Nq. i. 



flocks in more favorable localities for obtaining food, possibl}- out to sea. The 

 native name of the Northern Phalarope is euphonious, Li-wi-le'\vi-luk. 



Galliiiago dclicata (Ord). 

 Wilson's Snipe. 



Wilson's Snipe was not observed in the fall of 'g8, but the following spring 

 it made its arrival evident by its strange song. The first was heard on May 22nd. 

 Throughout the Kowak Valley, especially where there were grassy meadows 

 between stretches of timber, this appeared to be a common species. The song 

 and flight, or combination of the two, as observed on May 22nd and recorded at 

 the time, was something after the following fashion. I was in a broad, grassy 

 swale studded here and there with scrub spruces and bordered jby taller timber, 

 when \\^y attention was attracted by a curious far-off song which puzzled me for 

 some time. Finally I descried the producer, a Wilson's Snipe, so far overhead as 

 to be scarcely discernible against the clear sky. It was flying slowly in a broad 

 circle with a diameter of perhaps 600 yards, so that the direction of the sound 

 was ever shifting, thus confusing me until I caught sight of its author. This 

 lofty flight was not continuously on the same level, but consisted of a series of 

 lengthy undulations or swoops. At the end of each swoop the bird would mount 

 up to its former level. The drop at the beginning of the downward dive was with 

 partly-closed, quivering wings, but the succeeding rise was accomplished by a suc- 

 cession of rapid wing-beats. The peculiar resonant song was a rolling series of 

 syllables uttered during the downward swoop; and just before this drop merged 

 into the following rise, a rumbling or whirring sovind became audible, accompany- 

 ing the latter part of the song and finishing it. This curious song-flight was 

 kept up for fifteen minutes, ending with a downward dash. But before the bird 

 reached the ground, and was yet some twent}^ yards above it, there was appar- 

 ently a complete collapse. The bird dropped, as if shot, for several feet, but 

 abruptly recovered itself to fly a short distance further and repeat this new 

 manoeuvre. By a succession of these collapses, falls, recoveries and short flights, 

 the acrobatically-inclined bird finally reached the ground, alighting in the grass 

 near me. During the last part of this perTormance another snipe, probably the 

 female, made its appearance, flj'ing low over the ground and alighting witu a 

 weak 'chirp'. A little later one of the birds was seen perched on the top of a 

 spruce, uttering a prolonged series of abrupt resonant, notes, "ka-ka-ka-ka,'* 

 like the monotonous spring song of the Red-shafted Flicker. Although I tried 

 with some pains to obtain a representation of the Wilson's Snipe from this region, 

 I secured but one skin, that of a male, in the Kowak delta on the 23rd of June. 

 This specimen is much paler than skins from the eastern coast of North America, 

 and lacks most of the rufous and ochraceous tints to be seen in the plumage of 

 latter. On the 29th and 3ot'h of June, I heard the flight-song of the Wilson's 

 Snipe back of the Mission at Cape Blossom. 



Tringa caiiutiis Linn. 

 Knot. 

 The onl}' time I met with the Knot was on August 6tli, '98, at Cape Blossom. 



