MARSH BIRDS 117 



slow, deliberate wing-beats. When directly overhead the 

 males would poise momentarily and utter soft, mellow notes 

 of protest. Each note was emitted apparently with some 

 effort, causing the bird to check its flight and throw the 

 head backward. 



The only way I succeeded in locating the nests was by 

 watching the males through my field glasses from a dis- 

 tance. Presently each poised as a black tern is known to 

 do just over the nest. Frequently the first setting of the 

 phalarope is destroyed by an overflow. A second setting is 

 then laid, consisting usually of only two instead of four 

 eggs. 



The eggs are clay-colored, decidedly and handsomely 

 blotched with umber brown and black, particularly at the 

 larger end. The young when hatched are covered with a 

 coat of chestnut bi'own, and are led about by the male for 

 about two weeks before they can fly. 



Wilson's phalarope is local in its habits and is becoming 

 rare in the Great Lakes region. It seems hard to realize the 

 reports furnished by Mr. Nelson, the first ornithologist of 

 record for northern Indiana and Illinois. He reports in 

 1876 that the little phalarope was then the commonest of 

 our small waders, outnumbering even the spotted sandpiper 

 and killdeer. 



AVOCET 



The Avocet ranges throughout temperate North Amer- 

 ica, wintering along the Gulf Coast and southward. 



The avocet is outwardly unlike other American birds; 

 the bill is recurved, and, though a shore bird, the toes are 



