568 RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. 



Malayan region, China and Japan, its line through Central Asia 

 crossing the Pamir range. Unlike its congener, it avails itself of 

 the route by the valley of the Volga, especially in spring ; it visits 

 the Black Sea district and some of the inland waters of Central 

 Europe; and it occurs irregularly on both sides of the Mediterranean 

 basin, though rare to the west of Italy. It is seldom found in the 

 west and north of France, Holland or Germany ; but towards the 

 north-east end of the Baltic it is not uncommon on the autumn 

 passage, when it also visits the Swiss lakes. 



The nest is in a tuft of grass in a wet place, and the 4 eggs are 

 often greener in ground-colour, blacker in their markings, and 

 smaller and more pointed than those of the Grey Phalarope: measure- 

 ments I •15 by '82 in. Courtship is performed by the female, who is 

 sometimes accompanied by two males ; and the cock-bird usually 

 incubates, though both parents display great anxiety after the young 

 are hatched. The note is a low pleep, pleep, or tvit, wit, wit. The 

 food consists of small crustaceans, marine insects, worms &c. Like 

 the last-named species, the Red-necked Phalarope swims well, 

 though not noticed so far from land. 



In summer the adult female has the head, hind-neck, and 

 shoulders lead-grey ; the feathers of the back and wings somewhat 

 darker, with a mixture of pale rufous ; tips of the wing-coverts and 

 secondaries white, forming a bar ; tail-feathers ash-brown, the middle 

 pair darkest ; chin pure white ; sides and front of the neck chestnut ; 

 centre of the neck and upper breast lead-grey ; under parts white ; 

 bill black ; legs, feet and lobes greenish. Length 7-5 in. (bill '9), 

 wing 4"4 in. The male is smaller, and has the colours on the head 

 and neck much duller and less sharply contrasted. In winter the 

 forehead and the greater part of the crown are white ; nape and a 

 streak through the eye sooty-brown ; dorsal feathers margined with 

 white ; cheeks and under parts nearly pure white. The young in 

 autumn have rufous and afterwards bufifish-white margins to the 

 upper feathers, but subsequently resemble their parents ; though 

 their feet are yellowish and the toes are much less lobed. 



The third and largest member of the genus, Fhalaropus ivilso7ii, 

 is confined to America. Mr. J. Whitaker has a specimen which is 

 said to have been shot " some years ago " in Leicestershire, but 

 Mr. Montague Browne denies this (Verteb. Leicest., p. 151). A 

 genus, Steganopus, has been devised for this species, which has a 

 long slender bill, like our Red-necked Phalarope. Some ornitholo- 

 gists have placed the Grey Phalarope in a third genus, Crymophilus. 



