98 



l^ATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



Toward tlie end of June most of the young are hatched and, by the middle of July, are on the 

 wing. The sites chosen for this bird's nest are very similar to those taken by P. lobatus, except 

 that the latter may pick drier situations. One Red Phalarope's nest was found June 8, within 

 six feet of a small brackish pool, the eggs being deposited upon a nest of dried leaves under a 

 dwarf willow. Soon after the young take wing these birds-gather in flocks and frequent the sea. 

 They breed all along the Arctic shores of Alaska and Siberia, wherever suitable flats occur, and 

 even reach those isolated islands, forever encircled by ice, which lie beyond. It is not rare in 

 Spitzbergen, where its eggs have been found laid upon the bare ground. During the cruise 

 of the Corwin, in the summer of 1881, we found this and the Northern Phalarope abundant 

 wherever we went on the Alaskan or Siberian shores of the Arctic, and their pretty forms, as 

 they flitted here and there over the surface of the smooth sea, now alighting a moment and gliding 

 quickly right and left, pecking at the minute animals in the water, then taking wing for an 

 instant, appeared in ever-changing groups. They were also seen among the ice off Wrangel 

 Island and along the adjoining low Siberian coast, and through the Straits into Bering Sea 

 where they were found nesting on Saint Lawrence Island. On the Seal Islands Elliott found it 

 only as a migTant, passing north early in June and south from the 15th of August to some time in 

 October. Although a few gray feathers begin to appear in July the winter plumage is still 

 imperfect in many birds so late as October 6. 



These Phalaropes, with Tringa couesi, are the last waders found on the coast of Bering Sea 

 in autumn and they remain until October 12 to 17. It is a less abundant and less generally 

 distributed breeding bird on the Alaskan coast than P. lobatus, and, like the latter, probably does 

 not nest south of the mouth of the Kuskoquim River. It is also more restricted to the sea-coast 

 regions, but occurs in the interior, as I have a specimen from Fort Reliance, on the Upper Yukon, 

 taken September 12. It Is known to breed on nearly every one of the circnmpolar islands yet 

 visited by explorers. 



As with the other Phalaropes, the female is larger than the male, and the following measure- 

 ments show the average amount of difference: 



The m est striking difference appears in the deep chestnut of the lower surface and sides of .head 

 of the female and the dull color mixed with white on the same parts of the male. In spring the 

 bill is waxy yellow with a jet black tip. The feet and tarsus are dull yellowish. There is, per- 

 haps, even greater variation in the eggs of this bird than in those of the following species. The 

 measurements run from 1.15 by .85 to 1.28 by .89. The ground color runs through the same tints 

 as appear in the eggs of P. lobatus. The markings average much darker and larger in fulicarius, 

 and about the large end it is common for the spots to be so large and numerous as to become 

 confluent and hide much of the shell. The color of the spots is from pale chocolate to deep, bright 

 uipber brown. 



The main distinction between these eggs and those of P. lobatus consists in the generally 

 much coarser and more deeply colored markings on eggs of fulicarius. 



Among the whalers of Bering Sea and the adjacent part of the Arctic Ocean these Phala- 

 ropes are called " bow-head birds," from the fact that they feed upon the same minute animals as 

 does the bow-head or right whale (JBalcena mysticetus), and consequently both birds and cetaceans 

 of that species are generally found most numerous in the same locality. On the fishing-banks 

 off Newfoundland they are called "sea geese," though the name is less apt than the foregoing. 

 In winter these birds pass south and occur along the coasts of the Pacific on both shores, reaching 

 the south coast of India on the Asiatic side. 



