The Northern Phalarope 
No. 230 
Northern Phalarope 
A. 0 . U. No. 223. Lobipes lobatus (Linnaeus). 
Synonym.— Red-necked Phalarope. 
Description. — Adult female in summer: Above and on sides of breast and sides 
(narrowly) slaty with a drab cast; blackish on back and scapulars, and edged here with 
light ochraceous; wings brownish black, the greater coverts broadly tipped with white, 
forming a transverse bar; sides of neck and lower throat rufous,—pure on sides, more or 
less mixed with slaty gray on throat; chin, upper throat, and remaining underparts 
entirely white. Bill black; feet yellow, lobate and semipalmate, most extensively 
between middle and outer toes. Adult male: Similar, slightly smaller and of duller 
coloration, save that the black of back is more decided and the ochraceous edgings of 
upperparts deeper and more extensive; scapulars, etc., narrowly tipped with white. 
Adults in winter: Without rufous; more extensively white; crown and auriculars 
(connecting below eye with a similar spot in front of eye) and median stripe of hind- 
neck dusky gray; the rest white; remaining upperparts blackish (centrally) and dusky 
or ashy gray, extensively edged and striped with cream-buff and white; wing-bar as 
before; sides of breast grayish-clouded. Immature: Similar to adult in winter, but 
more black above; breast usually tinged with buffy or brownish. Length 190.5 (7.50); 
wing 115.1 (4.53); tail 51.3 (2.02); bill 23.1 (.91); tarsus 19.6 (.77); middle toe and claw 
20.3 (.80). Males average smaller. 
Recognition Marks. —Towhee size; slaty gray, rufous, and white of head and 
neck in spring plumage; slender, black bill, less than one inch long, with scalloped feet, 
distinctive in any plumage. 
Nesting. —Does not breed in California. Nest: A slight depression in the 
ground, lined with moss and grass. Eggs: 4; deep to dark olive-buff, heavily speckled, 
spotted, or blotched with brownish black (dark sepia). Av. size 29.2 x 20.8 (1.15X.82). 
General Range. —Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Breeds in Arctic 
latitudes south to the Aleutians, Hudson Bay, and northern Labrador. Winter home 
unknown, but presumably tropical seas. Occurs broadly over the entire continent 
during migrations but more commonly coastwise. 
Distribution in California. —Of general occurrence during migrations; abun¬ 
dant coastwise or off shore. Small parties of non-breeders sometimes linger through the 
summer upon interior ponds. 
Authorities.—Cassin ( Phalaropus hyperboreus ), in Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. 
Surv., vol. ix., 1858, p. 706 (San Francisco); Loomis, Auk, vol. xi., 1894, p. 27 (Mon¬ 
terey, migr.); Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 1, 1900, p. 21 (Kowak R., Alaska; 
desc. nest and eggs, habits, etc.); Fisher, Condor, vol. iv., 1902, p. 8 (Mono Lake): 
Cooke, U. S. Dept. Agric., Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 35, 1910, p. 16 (distr. and migr.). 
NOTHING can exceed the exquisite grace of this delicate bird as 
it moves about, not at the water’s edge, like other waders which it so 
closely resembles in appearance, but upon the surface of a pool or even 
on the bosom of the deep. As it swims, it nods with every stroke, turns 
at a thought to snatch some floating sea-morsel, or hits away with as 
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