122 THE CONDOR Vol. XIV

The young are covered with coarse black down, with a bald spot on the top of their heads of a livid red color. They swim with wonderful strength and speed, a baby only a couple of days old swimming ahnost as fast as a man can walk. They take advantage of natural cover much as the young grebes do. lint seem less wild than any of the other young wild birds. Steganopus tricolor. X,Vn. sON PHALAROPE. The most baffling bird as regards nesting habits with which our field work brought us in contact was this pretty phalarope. In point of numbers they were second only to the Killdeer among the shore birds, and throughout the nesting season there was hardly a trip in which we did not encounter parent birds whose actions mad it plain that we were very close to their nests; yet in all these trips s Fig. 49. FREAK NEST OF COOT COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF YELLOW WEED STALKS scattered over several years, the writer has been favored with the sight of but two nests. The birds arrived late in April and by May 10 were seen in goodly numbers. usually in flocks of fifty or more. A week or two later the birds were still in flocks but vere apparently mated. During 1906 evidences of nesting were not noted until June 10; in 1907 no anxious parents were noted umil June 15; but in 1908 the birds were unusually numerous and shoved every indication of the prox- imity of nests as early as May ,29. In fact one of the two nests mentioned above was found June 16, and on that date contained three young just hatched and one egg which was afterward found to contain a fully developed dead embryo. This nest was a scanty affair of dry grass built in sparse marsh grass fully 100 feet