HYPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. 297 



nests. The young leave the nest shortly after they are hatched, and run 

 after their parents over the moss, and along the edges of the small ponds; 

 but I saw none on the water that were not fully fledged. Both young and 

 old had departed by the beginning of August. 



The Hyperborean Phalarope seems to undergo an almost continual moult, 

 and is in full plumage only about six weeks each year. The young when 

 fledged are nearly grey above, and all white beneath. Some of them breed 

 before they have acquired what may be considered the perfect plumage; and 

 the very old birds become greyish also at the approach of winter, the red of 

 the throat and other parts becoming bright again in the beginning of May, 

 or sometimes in April. The scapulars of the young are conspicuously 

 shorter than the longest primaries, but after the first moult are equal in 

 length. The upper wing-coverts are then also short. 



I have never met with this species in any part of the interior, although I 

 have procured the Red Phalarope and Wilson's Phalarope in many parts to 

 the west of the Alleghany Mountains, at a distance of more than a thousand 

 miles from the sea-coast. 



Phalaropds hyperboreus, Bonap. Syn., p. 342. 

 Hyperborean Phalarope, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 239. 



Hyperborean Phalarope, Phalaropus hyperboreus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 118; 

 vol. v. p. 595. 



Male, 6, 131; wing 5f. 



Rarely seen south of New York. Plentiful at some periods from Massa- 

 chusetts to Maine. Abundant in the Bay of Fundy during spring and 

 autumn. Breeds in Labrador and along all the Arctic coast. Migratory. 



Adult Male in summer. 



Bill long, very slender, flexible, nearly cylindrical, but towards the point 

 tapering. Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, excepting at the 

 end, where it is a little curved, the ridge broad and depressed, the sides 

 slightly sloping, the edges rounded, and inflected towards the narrow, slightly 

 curved, acute tip. Nasal groove long, linear; nostrils basal, linear, pervious. 

 Lower mandible with the angle very long and narrow, the sides convex, 

 the tip narrowed. 



Head small, with the fore part high and rounded. Eyes small. Neck 

 rather long and slender. Body slender. Wings long. Feet of moderate 

 length, slender; tibia bare a considerable way above the joint; tarsus much 

 compressed, narrowed before, very thin behind, covered anteriorly with 

 numerous scutella; toes slender; first extremely small, free, with a slight 

 membrane beneath; second slightly shorter than fourth, third considerably 

 longer; toes all scutellate above, margined on both sides with lobed and 



Vol. V. 42 



