466 BIEDS — PHALAEOPODID^. 



stances as many as fifty may be counted within the radius of a mile ; but, notwithstand- 

 ing this, their nests are extreme ly difficult to discover, the material and the color of the 

 eggs correspond so closely to the appearance of the surrounding surface. If they are 

 disturbed while building, the nest is usually abandoned. Incubation is attended to by 

 the male alone. The female, however, keeps near, and is quick to give the alarm upon 

 the approach of danger. The females are frtqaently found at this time in small parties 

 of six or eight ; and should their breeding-ground be approached, exhibit great anxiety, 

 eoming from every part of the maish to meet the intruder, and, hovering over his head, 

 litter a weak nasal note, which can be heard to only a short distance. This note, which 

 la possessed by both sexes, is nearly always made while the birds are iu the air, and its 

 production requires apparently considerable effort ; the head and neck being inclined 

 downward, and then suddenly raised as the note is uttered, the flight being at the same 

 time momentarily checked. The movements of the birds usually render it an easy 

 matter to decida whether or not they have nests in the immediate vicinity. After the 

 first alarm, those having nests at a distance disperse, while the others take their course 

 in the form of an ellipse, sometimes several hundred yards in length, with the object 

 of their suspicion in the osntre ; and, with long strokes of their wingi, much like the 

 flight of a Kildeer, they move back and forth. As their nests are approached the length 

 of their flight is gradually lessened, until at last they are joined by the males, when 

 the whole party hover low over the intruder's head, uttering their peculiar note of alarm. 

 At this time they have an ingeuions mode of misleading the novice, by flying off to a 

 short distance and hovering anxiously over a i)articular spot in the marsh, as though 

 there were concealed the objects of their solicitude. Should they be f jllowed, however, 

 and a search be there made, the manoeuvre is repeated in another place still farther from^ 

 the real location of the nest. But should this ruse prove unavailing, they return and 

 seem to become fairly desperate, flying about one's head almost within reach, manifest- 

 ing great distress. If possible, still greater agitation is shown when they have unfledged 

 young — they even betraying their charge into the hands of the enemy by their too 

 obvious solicitude, they then hovering directly over the yonug, and utteriug their notes 

 of distress. The young have a fine, vsiry peep, inaudible beyond a few fett. They are 

 very pretty little creatures, covered with yellowish-buJi'-oolored down, with black spots 

 on the upper surface of the body. Even when iirst hatched they are quite lively and 

 difficult to capture. 



About the middle of July the females suddenly disappear, and a little later the males 

 and the young also leave, with the exception of a few stragglers, which occasionally re- 

 main until the last of August. The main portion rarely remain as late "as the tOth, and 

 are usually gone by the 5th. The males commence their fall moult before they leave ; 

 but I have never taken a specimen in which the winter plumage was very evident." 



Genus LOBIPES, Cuvier. 

 Membranes scalloped ; bill very slender, awl-shaped. 



LOBIPES HYPEEBOEEUS (L.) CuV. 



DN'ortliern Ir'hialn'roi^e. 



Pkalaroxms liyperloreus, Kirtland, Am. Journ. Sci. and Arts, il, 1641, 21.^— Wheaton, 



Ohio Agric. Kep. for 1860, 380 ; Eepriut, 1B61, 10. 

 LoUpea hyperioreus, Wheaton, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agrio. Eep. for 1874, .572 ; Ee- 

 print, 1875, 12.— Lakgdon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 14 j Eevised List, Jonrn, Gin. 

 Soc. Kat. Hist., i, 1879, 188 ; Eeprint, 22. 



