132 WILD ANIMALS OF OLACIEK NATIONAL PARK. 



Coot: Fulica americana. — While the coot — recognized always by 

 its slaty body, black head, and white bill, as b^' it^ loud and varied 

 cackling talk — is not a common bird in the park, and neither Mr. 

 Bryant nor Mr. Stevenson have found its nests, there are records 

 from a number of localities on the lower edges of the park — notably 

 Sherburne Lake, the Lower St. Mary. Browning, and Belly River 

 on the east, and Lake McDonald, Camas Lake, Mud Lake, and the 

 North Fork of the Flathead on the west. 



When at Lake McDonald April 21. 1918, Mr. Bailey found coots 

 numerous, " often in flocks of from twenty to a hundred." On the 

 next day, when the lake was rough, onlj' two were seen, and these 

 were " up under the bushes on the shore running about like quail." 



Order LIMICOLiE: Shorebirds. 



Family PHALAROPODID^: Phalaropes. 



XoRTHEKX Phalaeope: Lohifcs lobatus. — Mr. Bryant reports that 

 the northern phalaropes are seen in fall on the high lakes. Minia- 

 ture ducks, as they have been called, the dainty little gray and white 

 birds may be known by their slender necks, delicate forms, and the 

 habit of spinning around or darting to right and left to pick up 

 insects from the surface of the water. 



Family RECURVIROSTRID^: Avocets, etc. 



Avocet: Hecurvirosfra americana. — Mr. Bryant and ]Mr. Gibb have 



both seen the large, pale 

 cinnamon and white Avo- 

 cet. with its long slender 

 recurved bill, during mi- 

 gration ; and Mr. Bryant 

 says that while it is rare, 

 it visits the prairie 

 patches along the North 

 Fir,. 39.— Avocet. Fork of tliB Flathead. 



Vt^aia*"'-" 



Prom Handbook of Birds of the Westprn United Statpa. 



Family SCOLOPACIDiE: Snipe, Sandpipers, etc. 



Wilson Snipe : Gallinago delicata. — On June 11, 1895. jMr. A. H. 

 Howell found the Wilson or jack snipe six miles west of Browning, 

 and Mr. Bryant thinks it breeds in the park ; so its probings — holes 

 in the soft mud — should be carefully looked for in swamps and 

 meadows. As it feeds largely at night and is so protectively 

 striped that it is well hidden in the grass in the day time, it may 

 easily be overlooked unless almost stepped on, when it springs into 

 the air and darts off with baffling zigzag flight. Its song, erratic as 

 its flight, is often given high in air from rapidlv vibrating Aving-s. 



