AVOCETS AND STILTS 
241 
of new feeding-grounds. On March 10, when sailing to Florida, I saw 
Phalaropes in numbers, doubtless of both this and the preceding species, 
off the coast of North Carolina. 
224. Steganopus tricolor Vieill. Wilson’s Phalarope. Ad. 9 in 
summer. — Top of the head and middle of the back pearl-gray, nape white; 
a black streak passes through eye to side of neck, and, changing to rufous- 
chestnut, continues down the sides of the back and on scapulars; neck and 
upper breast washed with pale, brownish rufous; rest of underparts and 
upper tail-coverts white. Ad. & in summer. — Upperparts fuscous-brown, 
bordered with grayish brown; upper tail-coverts, nape, and a line over the 
eye white or whitish; sides of the neck and breast washed with rufous; rest 
of the underparts white. Ads. and juv. in winter. — Upperparts gray, 
margined with white; upper tail-coverts white; wings fuscous, their coverts 
margined with buffy; underparts white. Juv. — “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, super- 
ciliary stripe, and lowerparts white, the neck tinged with buff” (Ridgw.). 
c?L., 8*75; W., 4*75; Tar., 1*20; B., 1*20. 9 L., 9*50; W., 5*25; Tar., 1*30; 
B., 1*30. 
Range. — N. and S. A. Breeds from cen. Wash., cen. Alberta, and Lake 
Winnipeg s. to cen. Calif., s. Colo., s. Kans., n. Iowa, and nw. Ind.; winters 
from cen. Chile and cen. Argentina s. to Falkland Islands; casual in migra- 
tion on Pacific coast from s. B. C. to L. Calif., and on Atlantic coast from 
Maine to N. C. 
Long Island, three records, Aug., Sept, and Oct. N. Ohio, casual T. V. 
SE. Minn., common S. R., May 12-Sept. 13. 
Nest, a shallow depression in soft earth lined with a thin layer of frag- 
ments of grass. Eggs, 3-4, cream-buff or buffy white, heavily blotched with 
deep chocolate, 1*28 x *94. (See Nelson, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, II, 1879, 
38-43.) Date, Minor Co., S. D., May 25; s. Saskatchewan, June 15, downy 
young. 
This beautiful bird is a common summer resident of our interior 
prairie sloughs, and ranges westward as far as the San Joaquin valley 
of California. It feeds about the shores and often swims gracefully 
with a nodding motion of the head. Although the female does not 
incubate, she appears to be keenly interested in the welfare of the nest, 
and when I have flushed a sitting male, he has soon been joined by his 
mate who seemed to share his anxiety. Pairs of birds which evidently 
had young would utter a soft qua or quok and fly about me with a 
slow, jerky, halting flight and a peculiar sinuous stretching of the neck. 
Usually the female led. 
25. Family Recurvirostrid^. Avocets and Stilts. 
The twelve species comprising this family are distributed through- 
out the warmer parts of the world. They are generally found in flocks, 
and may be called Wading Snipe. They feed in shallow water, wading 
to their heels, and when necessary swim with ease. 
225. Recurvirostra americana Gmel. American Avocet. (Fig. 12.) 
Bill slender, recurved. Ads. in summer. — Head and neck cinnamon-rufous, 
back and tail white, scapulars and primaries black; middle coverts, tips of 
the greater ones, and part of secondaries white; belly white, bill turned 
