WATER BIRDS. 167 
forehead, line over the eye, and the sides of the neck; top of head gray, more or less streaked 
with dusky; a blackish spot in front of the eye and more or less dusky and gray behind 
and below the eye; upper parts gray or bluish gray. Young, during fall migration: Similar, 
but more streaked above, the feathers of back mostly margined with buffy, the middle 
wing-coverts bordered with white or yellowish white. Length 7 to 8 inches; wing 4 to 
4.45; culmen .80 to .90; tarsus .75 to .80. In summer the sides of the neck and a con- 
siderable part of the upper breast are reddish brown, more conspicuous in the female 
ae in the male; if is doubtful, however, if this species is ever seen in this plumage in 
ichigan. 
88. Wilson’s Phalarope. Steganopus tricolor Viewll. (224) 
Synonyms: Summer Phalarope.—Phalaropus lobatus, Wils., _1825.—Phalaropus 
Wilsoni, Sab., 1823, Nutt., Aud., Cass., Baird.—Steganopus Wilsoni, Coues, Ridgw.— 
Steganopus tricolor, Vieill., 1819.—Phalaropus tricolor, A. O. U. Check-list, 1895. 
Figure 47. 
The combination of a snipe-like form and action, with the thick elastic 
plumage of a duck and the web-margined toes, is common to the three 
species of phalarope, but the present species is distinguished easily by its 
superior size, the absence of lobes in the toe webs, and especially by the 
slender bill from an inch to an inch and a quarter long. 
Distribution.—Temperate North America, chiefly the interior, breeding 
from northern Illinois and Utah northward to the Saskatchewan region; 
south in winter to Brazil and Patagonia. 
This bird, both in structure and habits, is more snipe-like or sandpiper- 
like than either of the others. Confined almost entirely to fresh water 
lakes and marshes it is less often seen swimming on 
the open lake, more often found wading in the 
marshy pools or swimming there in small flocks. 
‘According to Nelson “The charming grace of 
movement exhibited at such times, combined with 
their tasteful elegance of attire, form one of the most 
pleasing sights one could witness, as they swim 
buoyantly from side to side of the pool, gracefully 
nodding their heads; now pausing an instant to 
arrange a feather or to daintily gather some fragment 
of food, and now floating idly about, wafted by the 
slight breeze which at intervals ripples the surface 
of the water. A more common, but scarcely less 
pleasing sight is presented when, unconscious of 
observation, they walk sedately along the border of 
the water, never departing from their usual easy 
grace of movement” (Bull. Nutt. Club, II, 41). Fig. 47. Wilson’s Phalar- 
The same writer states that the male commonly mpe: (Original.) 
prepares the nest and attends to the whole duty of incubation, but the 
female remains in the vicinity and evidently helps care for the young, 
although the females disappear about the middle of J uly, before the males 
and young. The nest is said to be a shallow depression in the soft earth, 
which is usually lined with a thin layer of fragments of old grass blades, 
upon which the eggs, numbering from three to four, are deposited about 
the last of May or first of June. Owing to the low situations in which 
the nests are placed the first set of eggs is often destroyed by a heavy fall 
of rain, causing the water to rise so as to submerge the nest. In this case 
