Phalaropes 



to his miseries. The at first reluctant lover may run away, but, 

 quickly overtaken, he soon falls a victim to the wiles of the most 

 persistent wooer, to continue the most hen-pecked of mates 

 ever after. 



On him fall all the domestic drudgeries, except the laying 

 of the eggs — the one feminine accomplishment of his almost 

 unsexed boss. He chooses the site for their nursery in a tuft of 

 grass in a wet meadow or soft earth, usually near water; and, 

 having scratched a slight depression in the soil and lined it with 

 grass, she actually condescends to lay three or four cream colored 

 eggs, heavily blotched with chocolate brown, about the first of 

 June. Sometimes a second and smaller set of eggs is found late 

 in the season. Many male birds, as we all know, relieve their 

 brooding mates, but is there another instance where the male 

 does all the incubating, while the female enjoys life at ease ? 

 What must a totally enslaved mother duck think of such eman- 

 cipation ? And what compassion must not a dandified, care-free 

 drake feel for the male phalarope confined on the eggs day after 

 day, and scarcely permitted twenty minutes for refreshments ? 



To secure their food, phalaropes run along the marshes and 

 beaches exactly like sandpipers, picking up snails and other small 

 animal forms, and nodding their heads as they go; or wading 

 knee deep into the ponds, thrust them below the shallow water. 

 "Swimming Sandpipers" they certainly are, though they swim 

 rarely, never for long at a time, or in deep water. Every 

 movement, whether afloat or ashore, is full of daintiness and 

 grace. In flight they sometimes cover short distances in a zig- 

 zag, as if uncertain of their direction ; but once launched on a 

 long migration, they fly with directness and power. 



The Northern Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus), a very small, 

 slaty gray, chestnut red, buff and white bird, the smallest of all 

 the swimmers, passes along the coasts of the United States, from 

 its nesting grounds in the Arctic regions, to winter in the tropics. 

 Great flocks, bedded or swimming in the ocean, are often met 

 by coastwise steamers in spring and from August to November. 



197 



