94 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



1914. McCormack records this species as a common spring 

 migrant at Leighton, becoming plentiful about the 10th of 

 March, but rarely occurring in the fall migration. 



General habits. — During the winter season coots gather into 

 large flocks and feed in ponds and shallow bays, mainly in 

 open water. They are highly esteemed for their flesh and 

 thousands are shot each season by gunners who find them 

 much easier to kill than ducks. When driven from their feed- 

 ing grounds they will persistently return, often flying directly 

 over the hunters and affording an easy mark. In the secluded 

 bays and reed-grown ponds where they love to feed these birds 

 become very talkative, uttering a variety of curious squawks 

 and cacklings. 



Food habits. — The coot feeds largely upon the seeds and 

 leaves of aquatic plants, and takes also small mollusks, crusta- 

 ceans, worms, and insects. Stomachs of 8 individuals from 

 Alabama contained stems and leaves of pondweed (Najas and 

 Potamogeton) , seeds of wild rice and sawgrass (Cladium), 

 and small quantities of snails, ants, and beetles. 



PHALAROPES: Family Phalaropodidae. 



WILSON PHALAROPE : Steganopus tricolor Vieillot. 



State records. — The Wilson phalarope, one of the smaller 

 shorebirds, occurs in Alabama only as a rare migrant. The 

 single record is of a bird collected by J. S. Outsell, September 

 5, 1911, at Bayou Labatre, on the mud flats near the mouth 

 of the Bayou. 



General habits. — The phalarppes are remarkable for the 

 fact that the females are more brightly colored than the males 

 and that they do the wooing, while the males take upon them- 

 selves the duties of incubation. The birds, by reason of their 

 lobed feet and their dense plumage, are able to swim with ease 

 and grace and they are quite at home on the bosom of the 

 ocean. This species breeds chiefly in prairie sloughs in the 

 interior of North America, placing its nest in a shallow de- 

 pression in the ground or in a tussock of grass in a marsh. 



