The Northern Phalarope 



on a day during the August migrations I have seen the tepid waters teem- 

 ing with "insect" life to a degree almost unimaginable. The upper strata 

 of a six-inch shallow held bugs or wriggling creatures of at least twenty 

 sorts visible to the naked eye; and of these, ten kinds might be distin- 

 guished in a single cubic inch. The lowermost stratum seemed a solid 

 mass of living creatures, while the spaces between, though comparably 

 clear to the eyes, must have been crowded with bacterial life adequate to 

 the support of the visible hosts. Into one of these channels of liquid 

 aliment, huge earthen platters containing soup of a richness beyond human 

 desire, come the Phalaropes to feast and fatten. They come after long 

 fasting, perhaps, and as they settle upon the water they begin to rush 

 about like excited schoolboys under a chestnut tree. Each bird gives 

 a grunt of greedy satisfaction between mouthfuls, so that a curious 



THE RACE 



Photo by the Author 



gabbling chorus, or plunder song, rises. This strange music of the chase 

 is instantly hushed at the approach of danger, and it can be heard to 

 advantage only from behind a screen of reeds or salicornia. 



At a table so rich the Northern Phalarope cannot practice the rhyth- 

 mical swing-and-dip which characterizes the pursuit of food limited to one 

 kind. He soon learns to be fastidious, and plows through lesser provender 



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