68 
Mr. E. S. Cameron on the 
four times, during the last ten years—both species exclusively 
during June, and in very small numbers. 
On May 21st of the present year an extraordinary invasion 
of Phalaropes occurred, and examples of both the above-named 
birds continued to arrive in greater or less numbers until the 
end of the month. At first the Red-necks predominated, and 
Mr. H. Tusler, whose ranch adjoins mine on the south and 
who was the first to observe their advent, brought me three 
specimens of Phalaropus hyperboreus on the date above 
mentioned, shot, as he informed me, out of at least three 
hundred birds, which included (as I subsequently learned) a 
few of P. wilsoni. All the birds were swimming about in 
shallow lakes, formed by the recent rains, on the prairie. 
The relative numbers of the two species were subsequently 
reversed, for, the main flight of Red-necks having passed, 
only a few were afterwards seen sprinkled among the 
WiIsom’s Phalaropes, which continued to arrive daily in 
considerable flocks. These later flocks were, however, less 
in size than the immense flight of P. hyperboreus described 
by Mr. Tusler, which I unfortunately missed. 
Both species frequented the temporary ponds formed by 
the abundant rains in the depressions of grass-lands, but 
seemed to shun the regular creeks and water-holes altogether. 
I procured several specimens for skins, a task of small 
difficulty, as the birds were so tame and showed so little 
fear that, when some members of the flock were shot, the 
remainder would make two or three big circles and alight on 
the water beside their dead companions. Similarly, when a 
Marsh-Hawk hovered above them, they made equally wide 
sweeps, and descended on the same place from which they 
had arisen. 
At the moment of alighting they were so thickly disposed 
that a large number might have been killed by one shot, but 
immediately after reaching the surface of the water they 
scattered in all directions over the pond. Their tameness 
was indeed remarkable. When 1 forced them to rise, either 
on foot or horseback, they merely flew around me to alight 
again; and in some marshy ground on the ranch I was able 
to drive two females of P. wilsoni to where my wife waited 
