144 Union Bay 



career. But I could use no such methods with my northern 

 phalarope. I could only make careful notes of the bird's 

 actions and appearance when I saw it in the marsh, on the 

 salt waters of Puget Sound, or in other places which it 

 locally visited. If I wanted to learn more about it I had to 

 talk to others or check the writings of those who had ob- 

 served the bird at different times of the year and in various 

 places and under diverse conditions. Its range was so great 

 that it was not likely that I would see it on its breeding 

 grounds or in its wintering areas. Probably few men who had 

 watched it in its winter quarters would also have the oppor- 

 tunity to observe it nesting. It was quite certain that those 

 who had studied the phalarope in the north or in the south 

 would not see it in the marsh where I was sitting. In only 

 one way could an approximately correct life history of such 

 a bird be secured— by combining the observations of the 

 observers in the north with those in the south, by adding all 

 the notes describing the bird in migration, and by supple- 

 menting these records with the little particulars obtained by 

 those who had the opportunity to observe the birds more or 

 less intimately in their own local and restricted districts. 

 Every detail had to be considered of importance in throwing 

 further light on the bird's behavior. As an example, I offer 

 this one. 



Once I saw a northern phalarope on Lake Crescent, one 

 of the most beautiful of our western mountain resort areas. 

 It is not a likely feeding place, for the water abruptly deep- 

 ens and there are not two acres of marsh on its entire margins. 

 Timbered hills border its west side to a height of four thou- 

 sand feet while to the east the imposing peak of Storm King 

 thrusts brown rocky buttresses down into the green of the 

 forest. The lake, long, curved, and narrow, is so blue that 

 many a curious tourist has dipped a pail of water to see if it 

 is really colored, only to find out that it is the blended re- 

 flection of rock, timber, and sky that has given the water its 



