Phalarope

“ The only enemy of the full-grown birds is the gyrfalcon (Falco gyrfalco) , which will surprise and capture them when lying on the water. This I succeeded in observing one day in summer 1907; just as I was observing a male phalarope, which swam along the beach of a little clear pond hardly two paces from my feet, I suddenly heard a strong whistling in the air and saw an old falcon, that from a dizzy height shot like an arrow towards the surface of the water, caught the phalarope and again rapidly rose in the air carrying the bird in its talons. ”

“ Nothing could be more graceful than the movements of these two little birds, as they swam about in search of insects, etc. Sometimes they ran lightly on the broad leaves of the water-lily which served them for a raft, and entirely kept them out of the water. Though not exactly web-footed, the phalarope swims with the greatest ease. ”

“ The grey phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) , irregular in its visits like the last species, appears in larger numbers when it does come. Its visits to the south and south-east coasts of England occur in autumn and winter. Its range in summer is circumpolar, and it has been found breeding as far north as latitude 82° 30′. The breeding plumage is reddish chestnut, the female being brightest in colour. In winter, when it arrives in this country, its under parts are pure white, and the whole upper parts a delicate pale grey. ”

“ It is larger than the former, more stockily built and has a shorter, thicker bill, which is yellowish at the base. From the sanderling it can be distinguished by the gray markings on the head and neck, which are mainly white in winter sanderlings, by the darker gray of the back and by the yellow at the base of the bill. Phalaropes are usually tame enough to allow close study of these details. John T. Nichols suggests to me the following additional field characters:
This phalarope holds its gray plumage well into the spring and adults quickly resume same when they go to sea in late summer. ”

“ Yet the phalarope is still more attractive. It is a shore bird, which unites in itself the qualities of its own order and those of the swimming birds, living, as it does, partly on land, partly in the water, even in the sea. ”

“ When wading—the birds prefer to be belly deep—the carriage of the head makes the species unmistakable. The bill is always held and thrust beneath the surface perpendicularly. This necessitates a straight neck. In profile the feeding individual can be mistaken for no other sandpiper, is quite distinct from the yellow-legs, and can really only be confused with a phalarope. The Wilson phalarope habitually wades in this part of the world, swimming only occasionally, but its markings are distinctive. ”

“ A set of four eggs found by H. B. Conover on June 10 hatched on the evening of June 30. Incubation is performed largely, but perhaps not wholly, by the male. H. H. Slater (1898) writes:
Jerdon asserts that the females (of all the phalaropes presumably) 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. ”

“ The nest contained four fresh eggs and was built in exactly the same way as the before-mentioned nest. The male proved so far from being shy, that he could be driven to his nest and merely be caught by hand; having laid himself upon the nest he was still more fearless.
A breeding phalarope will lie motionless with his head pressed deep down against his back. ”

“ Greenish buff.
The Red Phalarope during the breeding season has the underparts wholly reddish brown; they are very rarely seen in the United States in this dress, however for it is early changed for a suit of plain gray and white. This species has a much stouter bill than the two following; it is about nine inches in length. All the Phalaropes are good swimmers, and this species, especially, is often found in large flocks off the coast, floating on the surface of the water; they feed largely upon small marine insects. Nests in hollows on the ground, lined with a few grasses. ”

“ Most observers agree that the male assumes full care of the young also; but Miss Haviland (1915) says: "It seems as if both male and female unite to care for the young, and when the breeding ground is approached they fly around and call anxiously." Probably the gaily dressed female is a poor mother at best and prefers to join the large flocks of her sex on the tundra pools.
Plumages.—The downy young red phalarope is the handsomest of its group, darker and more richly colored, as well as larger than the young northern phalarope. ”

“ The little native boys have, as their most prized mark, this red-brown target. Inasmuch as this bird inhabits the small ponds just outside the villages, the young hunters have always easily stalked game available. The children begin to hunt the red phalarope as soon as they are large enough to pull a bow string. ”

“ It is very interesting to watch a struggle between two female northern phalaropes over a solitary male. They fight by the hour, not after the manner of the males, which rush at each other and boldly lock in a mortal combat, but rather these females fight by flipping their wings and pecking at each other instead of laying hold with determination. This can be likened only to a feminine hair-pulling episode. One day I watched such a combat for an hour, and there were numerous occasions on which I thought that one of the birds would succumb ”

“ Again he says: "Once they rose and flew about the pond precisely like small sandpipers, one of them uttering a peep-like tweet just as it left the water." Charles W. Townsend (1920) saw one which "emitted a whistle which was clear and pleasant at times, and again sharp and grating; at times the note could be expressed as a creak."
Field marks.—In its nuptial plumage the red phalarope can be easily recognized by its brilliant colors; the male is smaller, his colors are duller, and his breast is mixed with white. ”

“ Phalanger, fā-lan′jer, n. a genus of small arboreal Australasian marsupials. [Fr.,—L. phalanx.]
Phalanx, fal′angks, or fā′-, n. a line of battle: a square battalion of heavy-armed infantry drawn up in ranks and files close and deep: any compact body of men: one of the small bones of the fingers and toes:—pl. Phalan′ges, or Phal′anxes. [L.,—Gr. phalangks.]
Phalarope, fal′a-rōp, n. a genus of wading birds, forming a sub-family of the snipes. [Gr. phalaris, a coot, pous, a foot.] ”

“ The male alone was noted building the nest, and he usually incubates, but on two occasions the female was observed on the eggs. The incubating bird is not a close sitter and departs from the nest long before the intruder arrives. In that jaeger-haunted land when the male phalarope returns to the nest he weaves so stealthily through the grass that it is almost impossible to follow his devious course so that two or three rapid charges are necessary by the watcher toward the supposed location of the nest before the incubating bird can finally be forced to rise directly from its eggs. ”

“ The phalaropes are small, handsome birds that, like the plovers they are related to, perform long annual migrations, breed in very high latitudes north of the arctic circle, and have a distinctly different summer and winter plumage. ”

“ So hardy is this little bird, that it has been watched swimming about amongst icebergs far from land. It swims lightly and buoyantly as a foam fleck, with a peculiar bobbing motion of the head, but it is not known to dive. It apparently flies with 91 reluctance, always preferring to swim out of danger. Its food principally consists of insects, but crustaceans, worms, and scraps of vegetable substances are eaten. The call note of this Phalarope is described as a shrill weet, and the alarm note, heard most frequently during flight, as a rapidly repeated bick-abick-a. ”

“ The young leave the nest shortly after they are hatched, and run after their parents over the moss, and along the edges of the small ponds; but I saw none on the water that were not fully fledged. Both young and old had departed by the beginning of August.
The Hyperborean Phalarope seems to undergo an almost continual moult, and is in full plumage only about six weeks each year. The young when fledged are nearly grey above, and all white beneath. Some of them breed before they have acquired what may be considered the perfect plumage ”

“ When their breeding-place is approached the pretty little birds either run or fly to the neighbouring pool and there swim about in the most unsuspicious and confiding manner, utterly regardless of danger. They make their slight nests on the banks of the water, and lay four very pretty eggs, olive or buff in ground colour, heavily marked with dark brown, paler brown, and gray. Here again we have another instance in which the hen Phalarope is more brilliant in colour than the cock bird, and not only takes the initiative in courtship, but leaves the care of the eggs and young chiefly to him. ”

“ In each instance the bird pretended to have an injured wing. On July 7, this nest held four eggs. On July 8, there were four young, hatched either the previous afternoon or night and the female left the nest when the observer was 30 feet away. Ten adult males, shot at Topagaruk (July 5-10, 1951) , averaged 50 (45-54) grams in weight. These birds had testes that averaged 6.5 (2.5-9.0) mm long. The red phalarope on July 7 was the fifth most common bird in the area, making up two per cent of the avian population and was commonly seen on polygons having high centers. ”

“ 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 [Pg 23] 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." ”

“ Wilson is a bigamist. Not occasionally, and of course not invariably, but very usually she maintains two establishments. Now that attention is called to it, we see that our notebooks are full of references to female phalaropes seen in company with two males. The association can not be accidental, for we are in the very midst of the breeding season. The males, frightened by our presence in the swamp, and not daring to remain longer upon their eggs, have sought the comforting presence of the head of their house. ”

“ He stricken in body, she in soul, together they fell down to the margin of the pool. The falcon still clung fleshing its beak in the neck of its prey. The heron-Princess threw back her head, and, darting furiously, struck her own sharp bill deep into the falcon's breast. The bird threw out its wings with a hoarse cry and fell back dead, with a little tuft of the grey heron's feathers still upon its beak. ”

“ As a distinctive characteristic they have a sharp tooth on each side of the tip of the beak, which itself is very powerful and curves downward in a notable manner from the very outset. Their wings are pointed at the tip and when folded they extend beyond or at least as far as the end of the tail. All falcons soar in their flight when hunting. To this class belong the common falcon, the hobby, and the merlin.
Gerfalcon
“The common falcon, which is as large as a hen, can be recognized by a sort of mustache or black spot it has on each cheek. ”

“ When it is young, it is quite helpless, its very long legs being unable to support its body, which is entirely bare of plumage, and has a very unprepossessing appearance.
The flight of the Heron is very powerful, its wings being very large in proportion to its slender body. Sometimes the bird takes to ascending in a spiral line, and then the flight is as beautiful as it is strong. When chased by the falcon it mostly ascends in this manner, each of the two birds trying to rise above the other. ”

“ The phallical serpent is the cause of the fall of the first man.
[565] Vinatâ is also the name of a disease of women; and, as far as we can judge from the passage of the Mahâbhâratam (iii. 14,480) , which refers to it, it is the malignant genius who destroys the fœtus in the womb of the pregnant mother. He is defined as çakunigrâhî, properly the seizer of the bird. Kaçyapas, the universal phallos, the Praǵâpatis, certainly unites himself to Vinatâ in the form of a phallos-bird, as to Kadrû in that of a phallos-serpent. ”

“ According to the Vedas, it owed its origin to a feather dropped by a falcon who, when the gods were pining for the precious Soma fluid, succeeded in stealing some from the demons who had charge of it. In flying off with its prize, the falcon was wounded by an arrow shot by one of the demons, which wounded it and caused a feather impregnated with the divine fluid to fall to earth, where it took root and became a Palasa-tree (called also Parna) , which has a red sap and scarlet blossoms—emblems of the sacred fire. ”

“ But though in a general way the dictates of hereditary instinct are rigidly observed by birds, in many species a remarkable degree of elasticity is exhibited, or the rule of habit is rudely broken. Thus the falcon, whose ordinary eyry is on the beetling cliff, will for the convenience of procuring prey condescend to lay its eggs on the ground in a marsh, or appropriate the nest of some other bird in a tree. ”