326 GAME BIBDS OF CALIFORNIA 



company with the adults. Whether these mixed flocks break up dur- 

 ing migration is not known; but the extensive series of this species 

 obtained by Mr. R. H. Beck for the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 

 at Monterey in August, 1910, does not contain a single immature 

 bird. So far as we can determine all are adults, and the males and 

 females are about evenly divided as to numbers. 



Some of the food of this species has been indicated in the fore- 

 going account, as quoted from McGregor. Beck found the birds at 

 Monterey in 1910 feeding, as he supposed, upon small jellyfish which 

 were numerous along "slicks." This is unusual as most of the food 

 of the species is probably made up of small Crustacea. The forage 

 grounds include brackish ponds, as well as the kelp beds and tide 

 slicks ("whale grease") of the open ocean. 



This phalarope, as in the case of some of the other smaller shore 

 birds, has been killed in considerable numbers by flying against tele- 

 graph wires where strung out across a marsh. For instance, near 

 Alameda, May 15, 1896, fourteen individuals were found dead, having 

 been killed in this manner (Cohen, 1896, p. 15). 



The Red Phalarope, being a more maritime species than either of 

 the other two, and than most of the shore birds, has probably suffered 

 but little diminution in its numbers. The fact that its breeding range 

 is in the extreme north, farther toward the pole than either of the 

 other two species, has probably also contributed to its protection. It 

 is a small species, not worth the shot of the hunter, important neither 

 as a game bird nor economically. 



Northern Phalarope 



Lobipes lobatus (Linnaeus) 



Othee names — Mono Lake Pigeon; Lobefoot; Sea-goose; Phalaropus lobatus; 

 Phalaropus hyperboreus ; Lobipes hyperboreus. 



Desokiption — Adult male in spring and early summer: Top of head and 

 liind neck, dull sooty brown, the feathers with or without whitish or brownish 

 tips; spot in front of eye, whitish; upper and lower eyelids white; sometimes 

 a dull whitish spot behind eye; chin and upper throat pure white; bill black; 

 iris "dark-brown" (Audubon, 1842, V, p. 298); patch on each side of neck 

 bright rusty brown; back sooty brown, feathers widely margined with light 

 buffy brown, and extreme edges white until lost by wear; upper tail coverts 

 dull dark brown or blackish with narrow light brown edgings; tail feathers 

 blackish, lateral ones lighter and margined with white; outer surface of 

 closed wing sooty brown, except for tips of greater coverts and bases of 

 secondaries, which are white; in unworn condition there are slight white 

 tippings on rest of coverts; shafts of outer primaries light buff to white; 

 elongated tertials more brown in tone than rest of wing; axillars and most 

 of lining of wing white; bend of wing beneath mottled with dusky; under 

 surface of flight feathers dusky, shafts white; lower throat and breast grayish 



