FOOD OF AMEBICAN PHALAROPES, AVOCETS, AND STILTS 
FOOD 
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 
prey on the surface of the water, or searching for food along the 
beaches. 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 the remains were those of Carinogammarus mucronatus and 
in another Hyallela ~knickerbockeri. The peculiar seedlike winter eggs 
of certain water-fleas (Daphniidae) 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 (Pterostichus) , were taken 
six times. A representative of another genus (Amara) was encoun- 
tered once. Rove beetles (in one instance Olophrum fuscum and in 
another Hadrotes) were found four times in all. A peculiar beetle 
{Eurysteihus 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 (Halipiidae) 
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. dasythrix, and allied 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 (stratiomyid) 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. 
Pisces. — 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. 
j£ 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 are more or less neutral. The ground 
beetles taken are in all probability scavengers and are not active in 
