'^^3-1 General Notes. jgn 



the State, at an altitude of 3,319 feet. May 25, 1883, near the Fort I saw 

 on a pond made by damming the south fork of the Smoky-hill Rivera pair 

 of little birds swimming near the centre with a small flock of American 

 Eared Grebes. From their motions and position on the water I knew 

 they were Phalaropes, but saw they were too small for Wilson's, which is 

 a common migrant through Eastern Kansas; also I had never noticed the 

 latter birds resting upon the water, or swimming, except short distances on 

 their feeding grounds, or when winged by a shot; but I could not make out 

 with certainty whether they were the Northern or the Red Phalarope. So 1 

 laid down in a hollow at the edge of the bank and watched them for a 

 long time, hoping the wind, which was strong and favorable, would drift 

 them within shot, but they kept in the centre of the pond, and when they 

 did rise circled spirally to a hight of about one hundred feet, then struck 

 north. Gone, and my disappointment was great ! As I lay there estimat- 

 in| the distance, and blaming myself for not venturing a shot, my hopes 

 were revived by the sight of a flock of fifteen or sixteen winging their 

 way down the pond and alighting with the Grebes at the place where the 

 others were seen. Instead of quietly resting, like the mated pair, they 

 began chasing each other with tremulous wings and bobbing of heads. 

 The males (the plainest bird, an exception to the rule) were doino- their 

 best to appear brave and attractive. Their actions during courtship are 

 peculiar and ludicrous, much like those of Wilson's Phalai-ope, which 

 I have watched on their love or mating grounds. The birds only re- 

 mained a short time, arising in a body from the water and circling like 

 the first. I quickly slipped into my gun a couple of shells loaded with No. 

 6 shot, and dropped five of the birds, which the wind soon brought to 

 the shore; on picking them up they proved to be the Northern Phalarope 

 {Lobipes hyperboreus), two males and three females. These birds are 

 found along the coast of the Pacific, as well as on the Atlantic coast, but 

 I think their occurrence so far inland worthy of note. I measured the 

 birds but only mounted one, as I have a pair in my collection, shot in the 

 Bay of Fundy on the tide streaks, known as "ripplings," where the birds 

 gather to feed upon the minute snails and other forms of life on the drift. 

 The shrimps, feeding .upon the same, herrings feeding upon the shrimps, 

 pollock, like hungry hogs, often leaping out of the water in their eager 

 haste to catch the herrings, and the gulls screaming and swooping down 

 for their share, make up a wild and exciting scene in the never-ending 

 struggle for life, the strong preying upon the weak. 



Two days later, in the same vicinity, I saw, on the ground and in the 

 willows and stunted cottonwoods skirting the stream, several Audubon's 

 Warblers (^Dendrceca audubont). To remove any doubts of their identity 

 I shot one of the birds. I found them in 1882 an abundant -winter so- 

 journer at San Diego, California, and noticed their arrival at Whatcom, 

 Washington Territory, the last of March following; and I occasionally 

 saw and heard them singing along the coast of the Straits of Fuca to 

 Neale Bay, a few remaining to breed, but the most wending their way 

 farther north. Dr. Coues, in his "Birds of the Northwest," says of their 



