The Northern Phalarope 



No. 230 



Northern Phalarope 



A. O. U. No. 223. Lobipes lobatus (Linnaeus). 



Synonym. — Red-necked Phalarope. 



Description. — Adult female in summer: Above and on sides of breast and sides 

 (narrowly) slaty with a drab cast; blackish on back and scapulars, and edged here with 

 light ochraceous; wings brownish black, the greater coverts broadly tipped with white, 

 forming a transverse bar; sides of neck and lower throat rufous, — pure on sides, more or 

 less mixed with slaty gray on throat; chin, upper throat, and remaining underparts 

 entirely white. Bill black; feet yellow, lobate and semipalmate, most extensively 

 between middle and outer toes. Adult male: Similar, slightly smaller and of duller 

 coloration, save that the black of back is more decided and the ochraceous edgings of 

 upperparts deeper and more extensive; scapulars, etc., narrowly tipped with white. 

 Adults in winter: Without rufous; more extensively white; crown and auriculars 

 (connecting below eye with a similar spot in front of eye) and median stripe of hind- 

 neck dusky gray; the rest white; remaining upperparts blackish (centrally) and dusky 

 or ashy gray, extensively edged and striped with cream-buff and white; wing-bar as 

 before; sides of breast grayish-clouded. Immature: Similar to adult in winter, but 

 more black above; breast usually tinged with buffy or brownish. Length 190.5 (7.50); 

 wing 115. 1 (4.53); tail 51.3 (2.02); bill 23.1 (.91); tarsus 19.6 (.77); middle toe and claw 

 20.3 (.80). Males average smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Towhee size; slaty gray, rufous, and white of head and 

 neck in spring plumage; slender, black bill, less than one inch long, with scalloped feet, 

 distinctive in any plumage. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: A slight depression in the 

 ground, lined with moss and grass. Eggs: 4; deep to dark olive-buff, heavily speckled, 

 spotted, or blotched with brownish black (dark sepia). Av. size 29.2 x 20.8 (1.15 x .82). 



General Range. — Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Breeds in Arctic 

 latitudes south to the Aleutians, Hudson Bay, and northern Labrador. Winter home 

 unknown, but presumably tropical seas. Occurs broadly over the entire continent 

 during migrations but more commonly coastwise. 



Distribution in California. — Of general occurrence during migrations; abun- 

 dant coastwise or off shore. Small parties of non-breeders sometimes linger through the 

 summer upon interior ponds. 



Authorities. — Cassin (Phalaropus hyperboreus), in Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. 

 Surv., vol. ix., 1858, p. 706 (San Francisco) ; Loomis, Auk, vol. xi., 1894, p. 27 (Mon- 

 terey, migr.) ; Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 1. 1900, p. 21 (Kowak R., Alaska; 

 desc. nest and eggs, habits, etc.); Fisher, Condor, vol. iv., 1902, p. 8 (Mono Lake): 

 Cooke, U. S. Dept. Agric, Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 35, 1910, p. 16 (distr. and migr.). 



NOTHING can exceed the exquisite grace of this delicate bird as 

 it moves about, not at the water's edge, like other waders which it so 

 closely resembles in appearance, but upon the surface of a pool or even 

 on the bosom of the deep. As it swims, it nods with every stroke, turns 

 at a thought to snatch some floating sea-morsel, or flits away with as 



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