76 
BIENNAL REPORT 
Thirty species of Shore Birds still occur in Minnesota more or less frequently, 
and three, formerly found, have entirely disappeared. The latter are the Avocet, 
the Eskimo Curlew and the Long-billed Curlew. Of the thirty still found, sixteen 
are transients, migrating through the state spring and fall, five are of only acci¬ 
dental occurrence and nine breed in the state. To avoid possible mistakes through 
supposing that certain far-north breeding birds sometimes breed here because 
they are occasionally seen in the early summer, it may be said that such individuals 
are supposed to be unmated birds, sterile, or without breeding instinct and there 
is no evidence that such species ever nest so far south. The list of such strays 
includes the Pectoral, Least, Semipalmated, Stilt and White-rumped Sandpipers, 
the Yellow-legs, the Sanderling, the Turnstone and perhaps others. A surprising 
feature of the movement of the northern Waders is the late date at which some 
of them leave for the north and the early date at which they are back again. 
This may also lead to wrong conclusions with beginners in bird-study. 
As the number of Minnesota species is so large it will make for clearness 
and brevity to consider them in the form of an annotated list. 
PHALAROPES (Phalaropodidae). 
The Phalaropes are medium sized birds with lobed feet, slender bills, dense 
duck-like plumage and they swim buoyantly like tiny, graceful ducks. The male is 
duller colored than the female and is said to incubate the eggs and care for the 
young. As destroyers of mosquitoes, McAtee accords them very high rank, stating 
that “fifty-three per cent of the food of twenty-eight Northern Phalaropes” exam¬ 
ined consisted of mosquito larvae. Two species occur in Minnesota. A third, the 
Red Phalarope, a maritime bird, was credited to the state by Dr. Hatch, but there 
is no present-day evidence that it ever occurred. 
NORTHERN PHALAROPE. An uncommon migrant, seen chiefly in the late 
summer and fall—August to October—when it may occasionally be seen floating 
like a puff-ball far out on the waters of Lake Superior. It breeds in the far 
north. 
WILSON’S PHALAROPE. This beautiful bird was once an abundant summer 
resident throughout the state, especially the prairie portion. Wherever one went in 
those days, on grassy lowlands in the breeding season, its soft, mellow notes were 
sure to be heard coming from the anxious birds fluttering overhead. Now in these 
places it is rarely encountered. It is scarcely a game bird and why it should 
have thus almost vanished is difficult to imagine unless the mowing of the meadows 
in June destroyed its nests. 
AVOCETS AND STILTS (Recurvirostridae). 
AVOCET. Was formerly a Minnesota bird and bred in limited numbers, 
but it disappeared long ago. The writer never encountered it. Dr. Hatch met 
with it in the earlier days of his bird work—prior to 1870. Dr. Wm. C. Portman, 
of Jackson, Jackson County, who has observed and collected birds in that locality 
for many years, told the writer in June of 1893 that he had some years previously 
seen them in considerable numbers in that vicinity. On one occasion they were 
in company with Long-billed Curlews and had apparently dropped down during 
migration to feed and rest. 
