220
Lake Umbagog.
1898.
September 9
(No 3)
  We saw two Phalaropes. One, a very large light-colored
bird, was, I think, a Red Phalarope but it was so far
away that I could not make sure of its identity.
  The other one was a young L. hyperboreus. It was sitting
on the water and I paddled the boat up to within 
twenty feet of it when we stopped and watched it
for several minutes with our glasses. It was behaving
in the most singular way turning around and around
very rapidly dozens of times on the same spot & in
the same direction thrashing its bill deep down into
the water three or four times during each turn and
evidently getting an abundance of food of some kind
too minute to be visible to our eyes. At length
it saw us and stretching up its neck uttered thrice
a low but distinct scaips almost exactly like that
of a Wilson's Snipe. Then it flew giving the usual
Sanderling-like quit quit just as it left the water.
It alighted again about 100 yds. [yards] off and began
fluttering about in circles alternately striking &
rising just above the surface for all the world
like a big moth, occasionally rising upward
to a height of several feet & apparently catching
some flying insect. Verily the Northern Phalarope
is an erratic little fellow.
[margin]Red (?)
Phalarope.[/margin]
[margin]Northern
Phalarope[/margin]