﻿FOOD OF AMEEICAN PHALAEOPES, AVOCETS, AND STILTS 



The material at hand representing the food of the red phalarope, 

 36 stomachs in all, is in the main from the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, 

 though some comes from New York and Maine. The stomachs 

 available were collected from May to November, with August best 

 represented. The red phalarope is active in feeding, seizing living 



Erey on the surface of the water, or searching for food along the 

 caches. The food may be considered to be entirely animal, as a 

 seed or two encountered in two stomachs make a mere trace of 

 vegetable matter. 



Crustacea. — Crustaceans, the group best represented among the 

 animals eaten, constitute 33.5 per cent of the total food. Among 

 these, amphipods (8.9 per cent) were identified in 14 stomachs. In 

 one case tlie remains were those of Carinogammarus mucronatus and 

 in another Hyallela Tcnickerhockeri. The peculiar seedlike winter eggs 

 of certain water-fleas (Daphniidas) were encountered three times. 

 Miscellaneous unidentified crustaceans composed the remainder of 

 this part of the food. It is probable that the bulk of these fragment- 

 ary individuals consisted of amphipods also. 



Coleoptera. — Beetles amount to 27.3 per cent and are well repre- 

 sented in birds taken in Alaska. Ground beetles belonging to a genus 

 that is very common in the Pribilof Islands iPterostichus) , were taken 

 six times. A representative of another genus (Amara) was encoun- 

 tered once. Rove beetles (in one instance Oloplirum fuscum and in 

 another Hadrotes) were found four times in all. A peculiar beetle 

 (Eurystethus californicus) of small size, and for many years known in 

 museums from only one or two specimens, was found in two instances. 

 Weevils were encountered twice, crawling water-beetles (Haliplidae) 

 once, and the larval stage of another beetle once. 



Diptera. — Following beetles, the flies (22.7 per cent), are the order 

 of insects eaten most frequently. A group of dung flies (including 

 Scatophaga crinita, S. dasyfhrix, and aUied species) abundant in the 

 North was best represented, as it was encountered in 14 stomachs. 

 Gnats (Chironomidse) were identified twice and their larvae once. A 

 larval soldier fly (stratiomjdd) was eaten by one bird and a crane fly 

 (tipulid) by another. Larvae and pupae of dipterans that were not 

 identified were found in eight instances. 



Pvices. — Tiny fishes had been eaten by 15 of the birds examined. 

 In one case the fragments remaining were indeterminate, but in the 

 others all fish remains were sculpins (Cottidae), species of no economic 

 value. These totaled 6.8 per cent, and were eaten in August and 

 September. 



ifv Miscellaneous. — The remaining part of the food (9.7 per cent) was 

 composed of miscellaneous animals picked up apparently at random. 

 Ants, water-boatmen (Corixidae), and spiders, were each taken by one 

 bird. One phalarope had eaten a very small mussel {Mytilus eaulis) 

 and a second mollusk was found in another. The former, although 

 used as human food, is so small an item in the diet of this bird as to 

 have no importance. A tiny ball of hair completed the miscellaneous 

 animal matter. 



SUMMARY 



The red phalarope exhibits no marked economic tendencies, as its 

 food is composed of forms that arc more or less neutral. The ground 

 beetles taken are in all probability scavengers and are not active in 



