PTIALAROPODIDiE — THE PHALAROPES — PHALAROPUS. 
329 
Richardson states that he found this species abundant in high northern latitudes, 
breeding on the North Georgian Islands and on the Melville Peninsula. It was fre- 
quently seen by the members of the northern expeditions swimming at a great dis- 
tance from land. Its eggs — generally four in number — are described as having an 
oil-green ground, varied by crowded, irregular spots of dark umber-brown, which 
became confluent toward the obtuse end. 
Mr. P>atty writes that he has observed this species keeping in its migrations well 
out to sea, and thinks that it is rarely seen inland. He met with it about the middle 
of May in the Bay of Fundy, whence it departed for the north shortly after its arrival, 
returning again in August in countless numbers, keeping, about twelve miles from 
the land, in the tide-streaks, where it fed on the surface of the water, floating or 
swimming about in it as small Ducks do. 
Giraud considered this Phalarope as of rare occurrence on Long Island, mention- 
ing one specimen known to have been shot at Quoque, and others said to have been 
taken in that vicinity. It is probably not so rare there as has been supposed. A 
fine pair in their winter plumage was shot in that neighborhood in October, 1875, by 
I)r. James C. Merrill, and are now in the collection of the Boston Natural History 
Society. It is said also to be rare on the coast of New Jersey and on the Atlantic 
shores generally, although probably more common a short distance out at sea. It 
occurs as a migrant, in the fall, in the interior, on the Western lakes and rivers ; but 
its appearance is only occasional, and the history of its distribution is but imperfectly 
known. Audubon met with it on the Ohio, near Louisville, in 1808. It was then 
late in October, and the birds were in their winter plumage. They seem to have been 
singularly abundant at that time — so much so, that he shot seventeen at a single 
discharge. The same author mentions that in September, 1831, — being about sixty 
miles outside of Nantucket — he passed through an extensive bank of sea-weed, on 
which hundreds of this species were walking about as unconcernedly as if on land. 
Their flight he describes as rapid, and not unlike that of the Red-backed Sandpiper 
(Pelidna americana). 
Mr. H. W. Elliott noticed this species as being at certain times rather more abun- 
dant than L. lobatus among the Prybilof' Islands ; yet he had no reason to believe 
that it bred there. Like that bird, it was seen by the marshy margins of the lakelets, 
solitary or paired, but never in flocks. The earliest arrivals occur in June, and it 
reappears in the greatest number about the 15th of August ; by the 5th of October 
all have left. 
Mr. Boardman is quite positive that a few of this species breed on the St. Croix 
River every season. On one occasion, in company with Mr. Kisder, near Princeton, 
in the last of June, he came upon some young birds already hatched out and running 
about, and one of them was killed with a fishing-pole. This was in the neighborhood 
of Grand Lake, about sixty miles north of Calais, Me. 
This bird has not — so far as known — been found abundant on the Pacific coast. 
Dr. Cooper mentions only a single specimen, which was shot near San Francisco by 
Mr. Hepburn ; but he did not meet with any south of that place. 
Mr. Dresser speaks of having received twenty eggs of this bird taken at Egedes- 
minde and Upernavik, Greenland. Some had a pale greenish gray, or sea-green 
ground color, and were covered with purplish-brown underlying shell-markings and 
very clearly defined blackish-brown surface sj^ots, which at the larger end were 
almost confluent. They varied in size from .85 by 1.07 inches to .88 by 1.27 inches. 
This species was found breeding on the Arctic coast of North America by Mr. 
MacFarlane. It was met with in Franklin Bay, on the 4th and 5th of July, and five 
vol. i. — 42 
