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BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
pact like a duck’s to resist water. These birds undergo marked changes of plumage 
with age and season. The bills, as well as the marginal membranes of the toes, all 
differ in slight particulars, but th*e toes in all these species are united by basal webs. 
Two species are recorded as breeding only in the Arctic regions, but they all migrate 
southward in winter and two, at least, penetrate to the tropical countries. The 
Phalaropes, it is stated, nest on the ground, and lay three or four olive-buff or pale 
grayish-buff colored eggs, spotted with different shades of brown. -These peculiar 
birds, combining as they do to a certain degree, both the habits and appearance of 
certain waders and swimmers, frequent both salt and fresh water. Their food, it 
is said, consists principally of aquatic insects, worms, molusca, etc. 
Genus PHALAROPUS Brisson. 
Phalaropus lobatus ( Linn. ) . 
Northern Phalarope. 
Description. 
Length about inches ; extent about 14 ; bill and legs blackish ; iris brown ; the 
bill, less than an inch long, is straight and pointed ; the wings are long, and the tail 
is short and rounded ; membrane of toes scolloped at joints. 
“ Winter plumage {adult). — Forehead, superciliary stripe, sides of head and neck 
with lower parts generally pure white ; top of head grayish, the feathers with dusky 
shaft-streaks and whitish borders ; a blackish spot in front of eye and side of head, 
from beneath eye, across ear-coverts mixed dusky and grayish-white ; upper parts 
chiefly grayish ; sides of chest washed or clouded with grayish. 
“ Young . — Top of head dusky, with or without streaks ; back and scapulars black- 
ish, distinctly bordered wuth buff orochraceous ; middle wing-coverts bordered with 
buff or whitish ; forehead, supra-auricular stripe, lores and low'er parts white, the 
chest and sides of breast sometimes suffused with dull brownish ; ear-coverts 
dusky .” — Ridgway Manual of N. A. Birds. 
Habitat , — Northern portions of northern hemisphere, breeding in Arctic latitudes ; 
south in winter to the tropics. 
At Erie bay and about the lake shore in Erie county this phalarope 
is found as a rather regular but not common migrant, seen most fre- 
quently in the fall. In other sections of the state the Northern Phala- 
rope is a rare and irregular visitor. Prof. August Kock has observed it 
in Lycoming county as a “rare migrant.” Stragglers have also been * 
captured, at irregular intervals, during recent years, about the rivers 
Delaware, Susquehanna and Ohio. 
Phalaropus tricolor ( V ieill. ) . 
Wilson’s Phalarope. 
Description. 
Length about 9 inches ; extent about 15g inches ; bill and legs black ; iris dark- 
brown ; bill about inches long, cylindrical, tapering, slender and acute ; lateral 
membrane of all the toes even or unscolloped. 
^^Winter plumage . — Above plain ash-gray ; upper tail-coverts superciliary stripe 
and lower parts white, the chest and sides of breast shaded with pale-gray. 
Young . — Top of head, back and scapulars dusky blackish, the feathers distinctly 
bordered with buff ; wing-coverts also bordered with pale buff or whitish ; upper 
tail-coverts superciliary stripe and lower parts white, the neck tinged with buff.” — 
Ridgway’’ s Manual of N. A. Birds. 
