RED-NECKED LOBEFOOT. 295 



the motions of these elegant little creatures, as they kept 

 swimming about, and were for ever dipping their bills into 

 the water ; and so intent were they upon their occupation, 

 that they did not take the least notice of us, although within 

 a few yards of them. The female has not that brilliant bay 

 colour upon the sides of the neck and breast, so conspicuous 

 in the male. After some little difficulty, we w r ere fortunate 

 in finding their nests, which. were placed in small tufts of 

 grass growing close to the edge of the loch ; they w r ere 

 formed of dried grass, and were about the size of that of a 

 Titlark, but much deeper. The eggs are considerably smaller 

 than those of the Dunlin, and beautifully spotted all over with 

 brown. They had but just commenced laying (June 13), as 

 we found only from one to two eggs in each nest ; but we 

 were informed by a boy, whom we engaged in our service, 

 that they always lay four, and are called by the name of 

 Half-web." Mr. Dunn, in his Ornithologists' Guide to Orkney 

 and Shetland, says : — " I have never seen this bird in Shet- 

 land. I got several in Orkney ; but it is not plentiful. It 

 arrives in the month of July, and departs on the approach of 

 winter. It breeds in August, and builds its nest in swampy 

 situations close to the edge of the w r ater ; sometimes on small 

 green islands in the middle of the lakes. The places where 

 I procured their eggs, and found the birds most numerous, 

 are in a small sheet of water three or four miles from the 

 lighthouse of Sanda, a lake near Nunse Castle, in Westra, 

 and at Sandwich, near Stromness." 



Southwards, it has been obtained in the Firth of Forth 

 and on the coasts of Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Norfolk. 

 It probably occurs in the Hebrides, although I never saw it 

 there. M. Nillson mentions its occurrence in Sweden and 

 Norway. Mr. "W. Proctor found it in Iceland. Dr. Richard- 

 son says it breeds on all the arctic coasts of America; and 

 Mr. Audubon found it at Boston, and from thence to Labrador. 

 Its southward migrations appear limited, New York and 

 Italy being mentioned as its extreme stages. According to 

 Mr. Thompson, it has not been observed in Ireland. 



Mr. Audubon found the American birds more wary than 

 ours have been represented : — " While at Eastport, in Maine, 



