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HYPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. 



Phaljropus HYPERBOREUS, Lath. 

 PLATE CCXV. Male, Female, and Young. 



Few individuals of this species are ever seen to the South of New York. 

 Near Boston I procured several, and my learned friend Thomas Nut- 

 tall presented me with some that had been shot in the neighbourhood 

 of that city, as did Mr John Bethune and Mr Rodman of New Bed- 

 ford. As we advanced eastward in the month of May, we saw more and 

 more of them, and while at Eastport in Maine my son John shot seve- 

 ral out of flocks of sixty or more. At one time a flock consisting of 

 more than a hundred was seen in the Bay of Fundy. They were ex- 

 ceedingly shy, and the gunners of Eastport, who knew them under the 

 name of Sea Geese, spoke of them as very curious birds. 



They procure their food principally upon the water, on which they 

 alight like Ducks, float as light as Gulls, and move about in search of food 

 with much nimbleness. The sight of a bank of floating sea-weeds or 

 garbage of any kind induces them at once to alight upon it, when they 

 walk about as unconcernedly as if on land. Their notes, which resemble 

 the syllables tweet, tweet, tweet, are sharp and clear, and in their flight 

 they resemble our common American Snipe. At the approach of an 

 enemy, they immediately close their ranks, until they almost touch each 

 other, when great havock is made among them ; but if not immediately 

 shot at, they rise aU at once and fly swiftly off^ emitting their shrill cries, 

 and remove to a great distance. These Phalaropes congregate in this 

 manner for the purpose of moving northwards to their breeding grounds, 

 although some remain and breed as far south as Mount Desert Island. 

 I have met with them in equally large flocks at a distance of more than 

 a hundred miles from the shores. They were feeding on great beds of 

 floating seaweeds, and in several instances some Red Phalaropes were 

 seen in their company. 



Whilst in Labrador, I observed that the Hyperborean Phalarope oc- 

 curred only in small parties of a few pairs, and that instead of keeping at 

 sea or on the salt-water bays, they were always in the immediate vicinity 

 of small fresh-water lakes or ponds, near which they bred. The nest was 



