﻿UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1359 



Washington, D. C. 



October, 1925 



FOOD OF AMERICAN PHALAROPES, AVOCETS, AND STILTS ' 



By Alexander Wetmore, Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution, formerly 

 Assistant Biologist, Division of Food Habits Research, Bureau of Biological 

 Survey '^ 



CONTENTS 



General description 1 



Red phalarope 2 



Northern phalarope 4 



Page 



Wilson phalarope 8 



Avocet 12 



Black-necked stilt 16 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION 



The five species of shorebirds of which the economic status is dis- 

 cussed in the following pages are fonns that have become specialized 

 for life under certain conditions, and on the whole are not of common 

 occu rence, save in the particular marshes or on the large bodies of 

 fresh o^ salt water which form their haunts. They are thus unknown 

 to many persons familiar -with bird life in more thickly populated 

 dist"icts. All are at present fully protected by law and because of 

 their commendable food habits the^e can be no question of the in- 

 advisability of any attempt to establish an open season for any of 

 them. The phala^opes — small, close-feathered, snipelike birds that 

 swim on the water like tiny ducks — are too slight in body to be killed 

 for their flesh; avocets and stilts, though la^^ger, do not produce meat 

 of a quality suitable fo~- table use. All these birds are tame and 

 fea^ess, so that tiie e is little spo-^t in hunting them. In ad<lition to 

 possessing habits of the'greatest inte est, it is found that the phal- 

 arooes , avocets, and stilts have a certain economic importance. 



Thf family of phalaropes includes three species, all of which occur 

 within the United States. The northi^rn and red phalaropes are 

 practically world-wide in their distribution, but the Wilson phalarope 

 IS restricted to the Western Hemisphere. The two cosmopolitan 

 species are boreal in occurrence during the breeding season and do 

 not often come in close contact with man, except in migration. The 

 northern phalarope, a species that in point of size ranks among our 



' This bulletin presents a detailed study of the food and feeding hahits of the phalaropes, avocets, and 

 stilts that occur in the United States, showint; tiio economic status of the flTO species, for the Information 

 of conservationists, sports/nen, and others intitrestisd In our shorebirds. 



» This report wjis proi);ired while thi; author was on tlio stalf of the Hiolo^icai Survey from which ho 

 resigned on Novemiier 19, IMI. 



52.-,l9— 2.01 1 



