1889. ] Durcner, Bird Notes from Long Island, N. Y. 135 
also specimens, both in spring and fall, all from Montauk Point, the ex- 
treme southeastern end of Long Island. It would seem from this fact 
that these Phalaropes do not, in migrating, follow the outline of the coast, 
as most of the Limicolz of Long Island do, but in coming northward in 
the spring leave the coast in the neighborhood of Delaware or lower New 
Jersey and by taking a northeasterly route reach Cape Cod. During the 
southward migration the reverse obtains. A few only of the great body 
of these migrants approach the land, even at Montauk, except in case of 
heavy and adverse winds. September 3, 1886, three individuals struck 
Montauk Point Light, one of which was sent to me by the keeper, Captain 
J. G. Scott. He informed me that there were about twenty of the same 
kind of birds about the light and that some of the same species were seen 
on the beach the next day. He stated they are not uncommon in 
August and September. May 5, 1888, two specimens were sent to me 
by Captain Scott. Hereported about fifty around the light when these 
struck, and that there were ‘‘Lots of them hovering about the light from 
midnight to four A. mM.” Captain Scott thought these a new species, as he 
had not before seen them in their spring plumage, and consequently did 
not recognize them as the same species of ‘web-footed snipe’ that he had 
seen, not uncommonly, in the fall of the year. Both of the specimens 
sent to me were females in very high plumage. The ova in both were 
very small. May 29, 1888, three additional specimens were sent to me 
from Montauk, which: struck the tower that night, duringa fog, with an 
east wind. There were about twenty in the flock. The specimens were 
all males, but were not in such high plumage as the females that were 
migrating nearly a month in advance of them. That they were adult 
birds and would have bred was indicated by the testes, which were about 
fully developed. August 13, 1888, the return migration had commenced, 
as three out of a flock struck the same light at 3 A. M. and just in advance 
of a southeast storm which commenced shortly after. 
The specimen taken October 22, 1888, by Mr. Baker, is the latest sea- 
sonal record that Ihave. How much longer this pair would have remained 
it is hard to conjecture, but it is fair to suppose that if the food supply 
continued satisfactory to them, only a marked and unfavorable change in 
the weather would have hurried them on their southward journey. The 
status of this Phalarope on Long Island may be briefly described as fol- 
lows: In the spring, rather rare except when driven shoreward bystorms. 
In the fall, not uncommon in the eastern and middle south shore, and 
rare at the western end of the Island. On the Sound side of the Island I 
have only one record,—of one which was caught alive by the keeper of 
Little Gull Island Light, some years since.* 
Mr. Giraud says of them:f ‘‘With us, it is seldom observed. The last 
* An additional Sound record may be found in Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, Vol. V, p. 117 
of one taken Sept. 29, 1879, at Flushing, Queens Co., by C. A. Willets, the record 
being made by Robert Lawrence. 
+ Birds of Long Island, pp. 248, 249. 
