PHALABOPODID^ : PHALAMOPES. 613 



in the nape. A narrow, distinct, pure white line over the eye. Sides of neck intense purplish- 

 chestnut, or dark wine-red ; anteriorly deepening upon the auriculars into velvety-black ; pos- 

 teriorly continued, somewhat duller in tint, as a stripe along each side of the back to the tips 

 of the scapulars. Other upper parts pearly-ash, blanching on the rump and upper tail-coverts. 

 Wings pale grayish-brown ; coverts slightly white-tipped ; primaries dusky-brown, their shafts 

 brownish-white, except at tip. Tail marbled with pearly-gray and white. All the under parts 

 pure white, but the fore part and sides of the breast washed with pale chestnut-brown, as if with 

 a weak solution of the rich color on the neck, and a faint tinge of the same along the sides of the 

 body to the flanks. Bill and feet black. Iris brown. Length 8.50-9.00 ; extent 15.50-16.00 ; 

 wing 5.00-5.25 ; tail 2.35 ; billl.33; tarsus 1.35 ; middle toe and claw 1.12. Adult $ : Less 

 richly colored, and smaller ; length 8.00-8.50; extent 15.00; wing 4.75-5.00. Adult ^ 9,in 

 winter : No rusty red or pure black. Above, pure ashy-gray, each feather usually skirted with 

 whitish ; frequently some blackish, pale-edged feathers. Wing-quUls fuscous, usually with 

 light edgings ; tail as in summer ; upper tail-coverts, line over eye, parts about bill, and whole 

 under parts, white, the jugulum and sides usually shaded with ashy. Young, before first moult : 

 Bill blackish, about 1.10 long; legs duU yellow (tarsus 1.30; middle toe and claw 1.05). 

 Upper parts, including crown and upper surface of wings, brownish-black, each feather edged 

 with rusty-brown; very conspicuous on the long inner secondaries, and giving a general aspect 

 like that of a sandpiper of the genus Actodromas. Upper tail-coverts pure white. Tail clear 

 ash, edged and much marbled with white, the ash darker at its line of demarcation from the 

 white. Line over eye, and whole under parts white, the breast with a faint rusty tinge, and 

 the sides slightly marbled with gray. QuUls dusky, the secondaries white-edged, and the shafts 

 of the primaries whitish. This stage is of extremely brief duration, beginning to give way, 

 almost as soon the bird is full grown, to the clear uniform ashy of the upper parts of the fall 

 and winter condition. The change, in some specimens shot early in August, is already very 

 evident, clear ashy feathers being mixed, on the crown and all the upper parts, with such as 

 just described. Size of the smallest specimen only 8.35 in length hy 14.50 in extent ; the wing 

 4.60. Chicks are covered with buif-colored down, spotted vrith black above. In full plumage 

 this is the handsomest and largest of the phalaropes, and one of the most elegant of the wadei-s. 

 U. S. and British Provinces, N. to the Saskatchewan ; rare in U. S. E. of Illinois and Lake 

 Michigan ; abundant in the Mississippi Valley at large and westward. Migratory, leaving U. S. 

 in winter ; breeds in suitable places throughout its range. Nest in low grassy meadows and 

 marshes. Eggs 3-4, 1.30 to 1.35 long by 1.90 broad, thus elongate pyriform, clay-color to 

 brownish-drab, heavily marked with large splashes and sizeable spots, with numberless specks 

 and scratches, of dark bistre or chocolate-brown ; some eggs much less painted than others, in 

 finer pattern ; incubated by the $ . 

 827. LO'BIPES. (Lat. lobus, a flap, pes, foot.) -Lobe-foot Phalaropes. BiU generally as in 

 Steganopus, but shorter, basally stouter, and tapering to a very acute, compressed tip ; ridge of 

 culmen and gonys less depressed ; interramal space longer and 

 broader. Wings long. Tail short, greatly rounded. Legs 

 and feet short ; tibiae denuded for but a brief space ; tarsus 

 not longer than middle toe. Toes very broadly margined with 

 a membrane which is scalloped or indented at each joint, and 

 united basally to second joint between outer and middle toe, 



to first joint between the inner and middle toe ; feet thus ^lo- *29. - Foot of Eed-necked 

 , „, 11 T 1 1 Phalarope,nat. size. (Adnat.del. E. C.) 



semipalmate. Claws small and short. 



603. L. hyperbo'reus. (Lat. hyperhorem, beyond the north wind. Fig. 429.) Northern 



Phalarope. Eed-neckbd Phalaeope. Adult ,J ? , in summer : Above, sooty-gray, with 



lateral stripes of ochraceous or tawny ; neck rich rust-red, nearly or quite all around ; under 



parts otherwise white, the sides marked with the color of back. Upper tail-coverts like back. 



