GREY PHALAROPE. II5 



oceanic ; it can rest when it wishes and find sufficient food for 

 its needs in the surface-swimming marine organisms. On 

 autumn migration large numbers, probably of birds from 

 Greenland, must frequently if not regularly pass our islands, for 

 if contrary winds— usually gales from the south-west— are en- 

 countered, many are forced upon the southern and south-western 

 shores of England and Ireland. So numerous are these unwilling 

 visitors in some years that it has been suggested that the 

 irruptions are similar to the occasional westward movements 

 in mass of birds hke the Crossbill and Sand-Grouse, but 

 the direction of wind seems alone responsible. In some years 

 hardly any Grey Phalaropes are recorded, but in others the 

 numbers thoughtlessly slain with shot and stone are very great ; 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney estimated that over 500 were killed in the 

 autumn of 1866. Spring visits, though recorded occasionally, 

 are rare, and the bird has been noted in winter ; the majority 

 are seen between August and December. 



Naturally most of the Grey Phalaropes seen in Britain are 

 in autumn and winter dress, and a large number evidently 

 immature. On the water the bird swims very lightly, looking 

 more like a tiny gull than a sandpiper — a pearly grey and white 

 bird. So tame, or rather indifferent, it is, that inland, when it 

 often settles to rest and feed on small ponds, it may be 

 examined at close quarters, and is then often stoned to death 

 by fools Avho cannot look at a bird without wanting to kill it. I 

 have watched it more than once flitting over the water and 

 swimming only a few yards away ; it swims ill a zigzag course 

 and with a quaint bobbing action of the head and neck, darting 

 this way and that as it snaps at gnats and flies, its favourite 

 food inland, though it will pick small molluscs from the 

 weeds. It rises frequently, flitting rather than flying, and in 

 the air darts from side to side like a wagtail, often hovering for 

 a second. In these short flights the small lobed feet hang 

 limply, but are trailed when longer distances are undertaken. 



