leave the care of the nests to the males and lead a club life in
separate flocks. In the present species I have not found the sex to
be so much "emancipated." I have never shot the red-necked
phalarope off the nest, often as I have had a chance to do so, nor
have I seen bare hatching spots on the breasts of either sex. I
have no doubt that the males are the most attentive parents, but in
the case of isolated nests the second bird makes its appearance
before you have been there long, and I have repeatedly seen both
with the young. In fact, I should have said that of all the birds I
know the present species is the most connubial, and the mutual
devotion of a pair is a most charming thing to see--in fact, quite
touching. When not actively employed they treat themselves, and one
another, to all manner of pretty and playful endearments.
Hugh S. Gladstone (1907) says:
Incubation is performed mostly, if not entirely, by the male. I
flushed females off nests on two occasions, but in one case the
full complement of eggs was not yet laid, and in the other I think
they were only newly laid. The ground color of the eggs varied from
stone to olive, and in one nest all four eggs were remarkably
rotund. They take some 18 days to hatch, and only one brood is
hatched in the season, though if the first sitting is destroyed the
bird will lay again. The nestlings, although they can not fly for
some days, are wonderfully precocious and can swim immediately.
Their beautiful golden downy plumage becomes paler and paler, even
after the first 24 hours.
When the nest contains eggs the female bird shows the greatest
anxiety. She can be seen swimming about in the pools; or, rising
without any splash, flying up and down quite close to one,
uttering a low cry of "_plip, plip_," varied by a hoarse
"_chiss-ick_." This cry warns the male, which never flies off the
nest, but always creeps through the grass and rushes, to some
pool, near one of which the nest is invariably placed. Here he
will soon be joined by the female, and they will swim about trying
to hide their anxiety by preening their feathers or pretending to
feed.
Some observers have said that the young do not take to the water until
they are fully fledged, but Mr. Hersey's notes say that: "They run
lightly over the beaten down masses of grass around the tundra ponds and
when they know they are discovered take to the water and swim as well as
their parents."
Doctor Nelson (1887) writes:
Fresh eggs are rarely found after June 20th, and by the middle to
20th of July the young are fledged and on the wing. By the 12th to
15th of July a few of the ashy feathers of the autumnal plumage
appear, and soon after old and young begin to gather in parties of
from five to a hundred or more, and seek the edges of large ponds
and flats or the muddy parts of the coast and borders of tide
creeks. During August and September they are found on the bays, and
the last are seen about the last of September or first of October.
_Plumages._--The general color pattern of the downy young northern
phalarope is similar to that of the red phalarope, but it differs in
some details and the colors are lighter and more yellowish above. The
colors vary from "ochraceous tawny," on the crown and rump, to "antimony
yellow," on the rest of the upper parts, and to "Naples yellow" on the
throat. The underparts are more extensively grayish white than in the
preceding species and there is considerable whitish between the black
stripes on the back. There is more black in the crown, which is nearly
surrounded by it, and the black terminates in a point on the nape. A
very narrow black line runs from the bill to the eye; and there is a
black auricular patch. The central black stripe on the back is broad,
but the side stripes are narrow, and there are extensive black patches
on thighs and wings.
I have seen no specimens showing the progress of development of the
juvenal plumage. In the full juvenal plumage in August, the crown,
occiput, and a space around the eye are black, the former faintly
mottled with buff; the remainder of the head, throat, and under parts
are white, more or less suffused with "light cinnamon drab" and gray on
the sides of the neck, breast, and flanks; the feathers of the back and
scapulars are brownish black, broadly edged with bright "ochraceous
tawny," which gradually fades; some of the tertials are narrowly edged
with the same color; the median and inner greater wing coverts and the
central tail feathers are narrowly edged with pale buff or white.
A partial molt of the body plumage in September and October produces the
first winter plumage, which is like that of the winter adult, except
that the juvenal wings are retained. The sexes are alike in the juvenal
and all winter plumages. A partial prenuptial molt, from February to
June, involving the body plumage, some of the wing coverts and scapulars
and the tail, produces the first nuptial plumage, in which the sexes
differ, and which is nearly, if not quite, indistinguishable from that
of the adult.
Adults have a complete molt from July to October and an incomplete molt
from February to June, similar to that of the young bird, producing the
distinct and well-known winter and nuptial plumages.
_Food._--The northern phalarope obtains most of its food in the water,
on the ocean or in bays or in brackish pools or in fresh-water ponds.
Its characteristic and best-known method of feeding, on which many
observers have commented, is to swim rapidly about in a small circle or
to spin around in one spot, by alternate strokes of its lobed feet; this
quick whirling action is supposed to stir up the minute forms of animal
life on which it feeds and bring them within reach of its needlelike
bill, which it jabs into the water two or three times during each
revolution; the spinning motion is often very rapid and sometimes quite
prolonged, a curious performance to watch. We saw this many times in the
Aleutian Islands where small flocks were constantly seen spinning around
about the old piers or feeding in the surf off the beaches where they
floated buoyantly over the little waves or fluttered over the crests of
the small breakers.
William Brewster (1925) describes an interesting feeding performance, at
Umbagog Lake, Maine, as follows:
Alighting again, about 100 yards off, it began fluttering about in
circles, now narrowly clearing the water for a yard or two, next
hitting against or skittering over the surface, acting indeed, for
all the world like some enfeebled butterfly or clumsy moth,
alternately attracted and repelled by a forest pool lying in deep
shadow. This singular performance was occasionally varied by more
pronounced upward flights, extending to a height of several feet,
and apparently undertaken in pursuit of flying insects, passing
overhead.
Both the northern and the red phalaropes feed in large numbers at sea,
often being associated together; their favorite feeding places are in
the tide rips, on or around floating masses of seaweed, in the vicinity
of whales or near schools of fish. George H. Mackay (1894) writes:
On May 25, 1894, about 10,000 (as carefully estimated) were
observed resting on the water around the "pigs" (rocks lying off
Swampscott), occupying an area of about a mile radius. They were
feeding on the red whale bait (brit) some of which was taken from
them. I am informed that these birds follow the mackerel, which
also feed on this brit, by their pursuit of which it is driven to
the surface, and is then obtainable by the birds. I am also told
that in the Bay of Fundy the phalaropes so frighten the mackerel
when they come to the surface in pursuit of the brit, that the fish
sink themselves. To prevent this, the fishermen carry at times
quantities of liver cut up, which they throw out to attract these
birds and keep them away from the fish in order that they may be
better able to capture the latter.
Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1925), in his report on the food of the northern
phalarope, gives the results of the examination of 155 stomachs,
collected in Alaska and in the United States, from May to October,
inclusive; flies and the larvae of mosquitoes were the largest element,
32.8 per cent; the true bugs (_Hemiptera_) came next, 31.8 per cent,
including water boatmen and back swimmers; beetles represented 16.5 and
crustaceans 9.3 per cent; the remainder contained dragonfly nymphs,
spiders, marine worms, small mollusks, a few small fishes and a few
seeds. Various other insects and their larvae, many of which are
injurious, are included in the food of this bird.
_Behavior._--In flight these phalaropes remind one of the smaller
sandpipers; their flight is swift and often erratic; when flying in
flocks they twist and turn and wheel back and forth like a flock of
peeps, flashing white or dark gray, as breasts or backs are turned
toward the observer. Mr. Brewster (1883) has seen them pitch "down from
a considerable height with closed wings, much as snipe will do under
similar circumstances." Again he (1925) speaks of seeing one "rise
abruptly to a height of 15 or 20 feet, and poise there for a moment,
beating its wings and shaking its tail in a violent and peculiar
manner."
It is while swimming on smooth water that the northern phalarope seems
most at home, most graceful, charming, and confiding; it is usually very
tame and easily approached, but sometimes, especially when in large
flocks, it seems to be afraid of a boat and keeps beyond gun range. It
swims lightly as a cork, its thick coat of breast feathers giving it
great buoyancy, its head is held high and carried with a graceful
nodding motion. When a flock alights on the water, the individuals soon
scatter and swim about rapidly and independently in zigzag lines or
circles, jabbing their bills into the water in a nervous and excited
manner. I have never seen them dive and doubt if they can do so, as they
seem to have great difficulty in getting under water, even to bathe.
They frequently alight on floating masses of seaweed, where they run
about and feed with all the nervous activity of small sandpipers on a
mud flat. Roland C. Ross (1924) made some interesting observations in
southern California; he writes:
"The northern phalarope is quite fearless in this region, but
seldom does one find the birds so confiding as in the following
instance: Mr. Ray Francisco, the warden for the gun club on this
marsh, was working in water a foot or two deep, pulling out sedges,
dock, and arrow-weed. The northern phalaropes took an interest in
this roiled up water and drew close to dab at the surface and
"whirligig" about in their unique way. As the man kept at work they
drew nearer until actually about his feet. They stayed with him
until he stopped work in that section. They were observed sleeping
on land and water, bill along the back under a wing. Their
ablutions were absurd attempts to get a swanlike breast and neck
under water, when such airy grace and buoyancy forbade any
subaquatic ventures. To get the proper ducking the phalarope
stretches up and drives his pretty head and breast down in the
water, which effort promptly forces his tail end up; whereupon like
a cork he rebounds, to ride high and dry above the water with
hardly a sign of moisture on the close-fitting plumage. At once he
jerks up and ducks again, and again, all to little avail,
seemingly. This up-jerk and ducking motion can be observed at a
good distance, and the birds may be identified by it."
A curious little incident, observed in the Hebrides by Misses Best and
Haviland (1914), is thus described:
On the south side of the loch, just where we had seen the pair of
birds on our previous visit, we found a male and female in the long
herbage at the water side. Perhaps we ought to reverse the usual
order and say female and male, for the traditional dominance of the
masculine sex is entirely unknown in this species. Certainly this
cock bird was a most henpecked little fowl. Possibly he had been
captured immediately on his arrival from the sea. At any rate, he
was apparently tired out, and whenever the hen stopped, as she
frequently did, to preen herself or feed, he sat down where he was,
and tucking his bill under his feathers, went to sleep. Before he
had dozed for more than a minute, however, the female would peck
him awake, and, calling querulously, force him to follow her while
she led the way through the marsh. Now and then she flew at him and
chased him about, as if losing patience. This little scene was
repeated three or four times, and the birds were so confiding that
we were able to photograph them in the act.
Aretas A. Saunders writes to me:
I watched flocks of these birds on a small pond near the Priest
Butte Lakes, in Seton County, Mont. They flew to the pond in a
compact flock, scattered over the pond to feed, and evidently
gathered insects from the surface of the water. When frightened by
the approach of a marsh hawk the birds all rose, quickly formed the
compact flock and flew away, returning later when the hawk had
gone.
_Voice._--The vocal performances of this little phalarope are not
elaborate or striking. As it rises from the water it utters a plaintive
and rather faint twittering note of one, two or three syllables, which
has been variously noted as _tchip_, or _tchep_, or _pe-et_, or _pleep_,
or _wit_, _wit_, or _quet_, _quet_. Charles W. Townsend (1920) says that
it has a variety of notes. At times it twitters like a barn swallow, at
times it emits a single harsh note like that of the eave swallow. Again
a gentle _ee-ep_ is emitted, or a sharp _quip_. According to Witherby's
Handbook (1920), "Gladstone describes alarm note as a hoarse
_chiss-ick_, and Aplin speaks of a short _quit_, a rapid _ket-ket_,
_ket-ket_. and _chirra-chirra-chirra_ at nesting places."
_Field marks._--The northern is the smallest of the three phalaropes. It
is the one most likely to be seen on inland ponds, except where the
Wilson phalarope is common; but the latter is much larger and lighter
colored, especially in fall and winter. The best field marks are small
size, small head, slender neck and needlelike bill. The upper parts are
blackish or dark gray (not pearly gray, as in the others) and in flight
a white stripe shows conspicuously near the posterior border of the
wing.
_Fall._--Northern phalaropes are very abundant during August and
September off the coasts of New England, but they seldom come near
shore, except in severe storms. The main migration route is so far off
shore, south of Cape Cod, that these birds are seldom seen in the
Atlantic coast south of New England.
There is a heavy fall migration throughout the interior, which begins
quite early. We found them abundant on both migrations in Saskatchewan
and Alberta. After I left, Dr. L. B. Bishop saw a flock of 100 at Many
Island Lake, Alberta, on July 13, 1905, the beginning of the fall
migration; they were still more abundant at Big Stick Lake,
Saskatchewan, on the 19th; nearly all of the birds taken on these two
dates were adult females; many males were probably still tending broods
of young. A. G. Lawrence writes to me that these birds are fairly common
transients in southern Manitoba, from August 15 to the end of September.
H. L. Stoddard (1923) has published the following note:
Occasionally in August and September of past years large flocks of
small shore birds have been seen a long way offshore in the
sand-dune region of southern Lake Michigan circling and wheeling,
flashing alternately snow-white breasts and darker backs.
Long-range examination with binoculars showed rather prominent
whitish wing bars, but the identity of the birds was never
satisfactorily determined until the afternoon of August 28, 1921,
when the writer was camping at the mouth of the above-mentioned Bar
Creek, in Sheboygan County, Wis. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon a
light fog drifted in, and soon after large numbers of small shore
birds, similar in actions and appearance to those mentioned, were
sighted executing extraordinary maneuvers close to the surface of
the water about 500 yards out. They circled and recircled, turned
and twisted, some of the flocks finally alighting in some smooth
streaks in the water inshore of a long line of net stakes that
extended about a mile out. Fully 500 of the birds, now recognized
as phalaropes, were in sight. One specimen, a female in fall
plumage, was finally secured by tying the shotgun onto driftwood
pieces and swimming out among them. They were in no way disturbed
at my presence until a shot was fired, and I fully satisfied myself
that the bulk of the flock were of the same species as the one
secured, northern phalaropes.
J. A. Munro tells me that these birds are irregular fall migrants at
Okanagan Landing, British Columbia, from July 28 to September 18. Along
the California coast the fall migration is heavy and prolonged from the
latter part of July until late October or early November, the bulk of
the flight passing during August and September. Grinnell, Bryant, and
Storer (1918) say:
Heavy winds on the ocean sometimes prove disastrous to the
migrating hosts of northern phalaropes. Chapman records finding
many bodies of this species in the tide pools of the Farallon
Islands. A heavy northwest wind had been blowing along the coast
for the previous two weeks, and many of the birds had resorted to
inland pools of water. The emaciated condition of the birds at the
Farallones was probably due to their inability to procure food
while on the open ocean in migration. Forbush records numbers of
these birds as being killed on the Atlantic coast by dashing
against lighthouses at night. In the Cape Region of Lower
California, Brewster found that "most of the birds examined had
lost one or more toes, and two or three an entire foot, and part of
the tarsus also, while others showed gaping wounds on the breast.
These mutilations were probably caused by the bites of fishes."
Emerson records finding several of these birds killed by flying
against the telephone wires strung across the salt ponds on the
marshes west of Hayward, and says that very many of this and other
species of birds are killed in this manner.
_Winter._--Practically nothing is known about the winter home of this
species in the Western Hemisphere. It is evidently south of the borders
of the United States and probably south of the Equator on the open
ocean. The few straggling winter records for California and South
America give but a scant clue to the winter resorts of the vast numbers
that pass us on migrations.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Distributed over both Old and New Worlds.
_Breeding range._--Arctic regions of both hemispheres. In Europe and
Asia the breeding range of the northern phalarope extends from Iceland,
Spitsbergen, and Scandinavia, across northern Russia and Siberia to
Bering Sea. South to Sakhalin Island, southern Russia (Orenburg), and
the Outer Hebrides, Shetland, and Orkney Islands.
In North America the breeding range extends north to Alaska (Near
Islands, St. Paul Island, Nelson Island, Pastolik, St. Michael, probably
Golofin Bay, the Kowak Valley, Cape Blossom, Point Hope, Point Barrow,
and the Gens de Large Mountains); Mackenzie (Franklin Bay); Keewatin
(Cape Eskimo); probably Baffin Island (Cumberland Sound); and Greenland
(North Star Bay, Upernavik and Jacob's Bight). East to Greenland (Disko
Island); Labrador (Nain and Hopedale); and western Quebec (Fort George
and Rupert House). South to western Quebec (Rupert House); northern
Manitoba (York Factory and Fort Churchill); Mackenzie (Artillery Lake
and Fort Rae); and Alaska (Nushagak and Kiska Island). West to Alaska
(Kiska and Near Islands).
_Winter range._--The winter range of the European and Asiatic birds
appears to extend south to southern Japan, the north coast of New
Guinea, Ceram, the coast of Beluchistan, the east coast of Arabia, and
probably points in the northern part of the Indian Ocean.
The winter range of North American breeding birds of this species is
more or less imperfectly known, and they are believed to winter largely
at sea. It has been reported as wintering in southern California; it has
been taken or observed in Costa Rica (Desamparados) and Peru (Tumbez);
there is a specimen in the museum at Buenos Aires, Argentina, that was
taken in Patagonia.
_Spring migration._--Early dates of arrival in North America are:
Florida, 175 miles west of Tampa, March 14; Bermuda Islands, March 18;
South Carolina, near Chester, May 17; North Carolina, Cape Lookout,
April 3; Maryland, Cumberland, May 23; New Jersey, 80 miles off
Barnegat, May 6, and Cape May County, May 22; New York, Long Cave, April
2, Montauk Point, April 30, and Branchport, May 16; Connecticut,
Quinnipiac Marshes, May 21; Massachusetts, near Boston, May 5, Marthas
Vineyard, May 6, and Provincetown, May 21; Maine, near Milo, May 3;
Quebec, Godbout, May 27; Nova Scotia, Halifax, May 12; Ohio,
Youngstown, May 26; Nebraska, Lincoln, May 10; Manitoba, Shoal Lake,
May 19; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, May 15, Osler, May 13, and Dinsmore,
May 30; Colorado, Loveland, May 1, Denver, May 17, and Middle Park, May
26; Montana, Big Sandy, May 18, and Terry, May 21; Alberta, Beaverhill
Lake, May 7; California, Monterey, April 9, Santa Barbara, April 24,
Fresno, May 5, Los Banos, May 19, and Santa Cruz, May 22; Oregon,
Klamath Falls, April 17, Malheur Lake, April 26, and Newport, April 30;
Washington, Destruction Island Lighthouse, April 27, Shoalwater Bay, May
9, and Olympia, May 13; British Columbia, Okanagan Landing, May 18, and
Mabel Lake, May 25; Yukon, Forty-mile, May 3; Alaska, Fort Kenia, May 3,
Bethel, May 19, Kowak River, May 22, Igushik, May 23, St. Michael, May
14, Fort Yukon, June 1, and Point Barrow, June 11; and Greenland, North
Star Bay, June 14.
_Fall migration._--Late dates of departure are: Alaska, Pribilof
Islands, August 31, Port Clarence, September 6, and Okutan, September
17; British Columbia, Okanagan Landing, October 15; Washington, Clallam
Bay, October 28; Oregon, Oswego, September 25; California, Fresno,
October 6, Watsonville, October 20, and Monterey, October 24; Montana,
Priest Butte Lakes, September 4, Columbia Falls, September 13, and
Corvallis, September 20; Idaho, Salmon River Mountains, September 5;
Wyoming, Fort Washakie, September 13, and Yellowstone Park, September
18; Colorado, near Denver, October 13; Manitoba, Whitewater Lake,
September 9, and Shoal Lake, September 21; North Dakota, Stump Lake,
September 2; Nebraska, Lincoln, October 26; Minnesota, St. Vincent,
August 31; Wisconsin, near Cedar Grove, September 23; Ontario, Ottawa,
October 12; Ohio, Youngstown, October 9; Newfoundland, October 11;
Ungava, mouth of the Koksoak River, September 19; Maine, near
Pittsfield, September 3; New Hampshire, Lonesome Lake, September 22,
Lancaster, October 8, and Dublin Pond, October 13; Massachusetts,
Nantucket, September 20, near Springfield, September 23, Swampscott,
September 26, Harvard, October 5, and Ware, October 13; Connecticut,
Hartford, September 27; New York, Branchport, September 15, Athol
Spring, September 24, Oneida Lake, September 21, Ithaca, September 27,
Flushing, September 29, and Montauk Point, October 22; New Jersey, Stone
Harbor, September 4, near Tuckerton, September 13, and 5-fathom Beach
Light, October 12; Pennsylvania, Pittston, September 2, Beaver,
September 26, Carlisle, October 1, and Erie, October 10; District of
Columbia, Washington, August 31; West Virginia, near Parkersburg,
September 26; North Carolina, Bladen County, September 23; and South
Carolina, Frogmore, September 25, and Sea Islands, October 25.
_Casual records._--The northern phalarope is apparently less common in
the Mississippi Valley and the Southwest. Some records in these regions
are: Michigan, Lenawee County, September 14, 1899, near Forestville,
October 4, 1911, and October 28, 1911; Indiana, Fort Wayne, June 7,
1889; Illinois, Calumet Lake, September 27, 1903; Iowa, Burlington,
August 10, 1894, and Omaha, May 6, 1896; Missouri, near St. Louis,
October 9, 1878; Kansas, May 25, 1883; New Mexico, Las Vegas, August 31,
1903; and Arizona, Walker Lake, August 19, 1889.