THE OSPREY. 101 



thoy go down to the telephone wire, which runs from the village to North East 

 Point, just before dark, and hide in the grass beneath it, then when a flock 

 comes along it usmilly passes under the wire, but when the leaders are well 

 past it, the boys rise up and beat tin cans and yell. This scares the flock 

 which rises a few feet, just enough to have the wire in their midst, which in- 

 jures the heads or wings of several, the boys often getting as many as fifty in 

 an evening. Another way in which they got the l)irds is to throw seal 

 scapulas at a flock as it passes; the birds fly so close together that they can- 

 not avoid them, in consequence several get hit. 



17. Phalaropus lohatus. Northern Phalarope. 



I saw no live birds, but one in bad condition was brought to me. 



18. Trin<ja 2'>tllocnemi><. Pribylof Sandpiper. 



Abundant and quite fearless. Thoy breed sometime in June as I collected 

 a very young liird on July 2nd, and on Julj' fith, 1 found a nest with four 

 eggs, incubation far advanced. Tho nost, found on the Northwest shore is 

 simply a round depression in a thick launch of moss growing in an exposed 

 position a few yards from a small pool of water, caused by melting snow. I 

 nearly stepped on the bird liefore she would leave her nest. I knew she had 

 one from the antics she went through, so I stood perfectly still and looked 

 carefully around. It was no easy matter to find it, for the coloration of the 

 eggs so blended with tho mosses as to become indistinguishable from them at 

 the distance of a few feet. On another occasion, seeing an old bird shamming, I 

 watched her from a dune for some time, when through my glasses I saw 

 three young feeding about her. I then quietly ran over there and was just in 

 time to get one, tho others hiding themselves. Holding this one in my hand 

 while lying flat on the ground, the mother was attracted by its calling and 

 came fearlessly up to within a foot of my face, but as soon as I attempted to 

 capture her she would be just beyond my reach, staggering away with droop- 

 ing head and wings and then running rapidly away. Later on in July, the 

 young go in flocks with apparently no adult birds with them. Fifty to a 

 hundred may be seen on the lagoon flats at low water together. My eggs are 

 colored as follows: the ground color is olive buff, tho under-spots being drab 

 and fewer in number than the markings proper, which are blotches, and rang- 

 ing in size from 1 mm. to 1 cm. of burnt umber brown. These blotches 

 diminish toward the apex where they are entirely wanting. The nest, which 

 was collected, is merely a depression 6.5 cm. across and 5 cm. deep, with no 

 covering or shelter and no lining. There were no attempts at concealment 

 and none was necessary as it was very diflicult to see the bird either when on 

 the eggs or when exposed. My eggs are numbered 27,967, U. S. Nat. Mus., 



