EGGS OF BEITISH BIRDS. 131 



The eggs of the Grey Phalarope are four in number. The 

 ground-colour is pale huffish -brown, slightly tinged with olive. 

 They are profusely spotted and blotched with very dark brown, 

 the spots being largest and frequently confluent at the large end 

 of the egg ; the underlying spots are few in number and very pale 

 greyish-brown. They vary in length from P28 to 1'2 inch, and 

 in breadth from 0"9 to 0'85 inch. The eggs of this species very 

 closely resemble those of the Bed-necked Phalarope, but may 

 generally be distinguished by their larger size. 



THE BED-NECKED PHALABOPE. 



Phala rop us hyper bo re us . 

 Plate 38, Fig. 1. 



The Bed-necked Phalarope formerly bred in the counties of 

 Perth and Inverness, in the Orkneys, and also in Sutherland and 

 the Isle of Skye, but it now only nests sparingly in the Orkneys, 

 Shetlands, and in the Outer Hebrides. It is a circumpolar bird, 

 nesting principally on the tundras above the limit of forest-growth 

 as far north as land extends in the eastern hemisphere, and in the 

 western hemisphere up to lat. 73°. It rarely breeds south of the 

 Arctic circle ; but above the pine-regions of the Dovref jeld it nests 

 as far south as lat. 62°, and on the Pacific coast Middendorff found 

 it nesting on the west shores of the Sea of Ochotsk as far south 

 as lat. 55°. It is a summer visitor to Greenland, Iceland, and the 

 Faroes. 



The nest is simply a slight depression in the ground, very much 

 like that of a Snipe. 



The eggs of the Bed-necked Phalarope are four in number, and 

 vary in ground-colour from pale buff and rich ochraceous-buff to 

 pale olive, thickly blotched, spotted and speckled with rich umber- 

 brown, blackish-brown and pale brown, and with a few greyish 

 underlying markings. Some eggs are much more boldly and 

 richly spotted than others, and on some many of the markings 

 take an oblique direction. The spots are largest and finest round 

 the large end of the egg, sometimes entirely covering it. They 

 vary in length from 1"2 to 1*05 inch, and in breadth from 0'85 to 

 0"8 inch. The eggs of this bird resemble very closely those of the 



