PHALAROPES: WILSON PHALAROPE 
287 
they have now been found by Dr. R. C. Murphy “common all along 
the coast of Peru.” Not far off shore from Asia Island, the doctor’s 
ship, the Alcatraz, “ran through many 1 slicks’ or grassy areas on the 
sea. They lay mostly between the drift-lines, and were themselves 
usually more or less flecked with suds and bubbles. These slicks 
proved to be the feeding grounds of flocks of Northern Phalaropes, 
aggregating tens of thousands of birds” (1925, p. 50). The flocks 
were often seen a mile or more off shore (Ibid, p. 281). 
Additional Literature.—Brewster, William, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 
Harvard College, LXVI, 218-221, 1925.— Chapman, F. M., Camps and Cruises of an 
Ornithologist, 268-271, 1908.— Nelson, E. W., Report on Natural History Collec¬ 
tions made in Alaska, 99, 1887 (breeding habits).— Torrey, Bradford, Field Days 
in California, 49-57, 1913.— Wetmore, Alexander, U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 1359, 
4-8, 1925. 
WILSON PHALAROPE: Steganopus tricolor Vieillot 
Plate 29 
Description. — Male: Length 8.2-9 inches, wing 4.7-4.8, bill 1.2, tarsus 1.2. 
Female: Length 9.4-10 inches, wing 5.2-5.S, bill 1.3, tarsus 1.3. Bill slender, 
longer than head, legs long, lobes of all the toes narrowly margined. Adult female in 
breeding plumage: Top of head bluish gray, nape white, “passing into bluish gray or 
slate-gray on back and scapulars” (Ridgway); side of head white with black stripe , 
changing to reddish brown on lower neck and sides of back; upperparts with broad 
brown Vs, and without white markings on back or wings but with upper tail coverts 
white; underparts plain white with cinnamon suffusion on sides of neck and breast; 
axillars and wing linings white; iris brown, eye-ring and patch above eye, white; bill, 
legs and feet blackish. Adult male in breeding plumage: Smaller; color pattern only 
faintly indicated on head and neck, back of neck reddish brown, upperparts mainly 
brownish streaked. Adults in winter plumage: Upperparts light gray, white feather 
tippings giving scale effect, upper tail coverts white; underparts mainly white; legs 
and feet yellowish. Young in juvenal plumage: Crown, back, and wings, dusky, the 
feathers edged with buff or rusty, and wings washed with whitish, giving streaked and 
mottled effect; stripe above eye and underparts white, neck tinged with buff; bill 
black, yellowish at base of upper mandible, legs flesh-color, feet yellow (Grinnell, 
Bryant, and Storer). 
Comparisons. —The Wilson may be distinguished from other phalaropes by its 
larger size, long neck, long bill, white upper tail coverts, and, in all plumages, the 
absence of white wing bars. 
Range. —Known only from the Western Hemisphere. Breeds probably from 
extreme southern British Columbia, Washington, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, 
North Dakota, Michigan, and southern Ontario and south to Indiana, Missouri, 
Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California; winters so far as known, from Brazil, 
Paraguay, Chile, and Argentina south to the Falkland Islands, but reported as win¬ 
tering in Mexico, rarely southern Texas, and in southern California. 
State Records. —The Wilson Phalarope is such a common breeder in northern 
Colorado and so well known in migration in southern Colorado both east and west of 
the range, that it must necessarily be more common in New Mexico than the few 
records for the State would indicate. Two specimens were taken many years ago 
near Fort Thorn and sent to the Smithsonian Institution (Henry). On June 28, 
