BIRDS OF ICELAND 91 



their breeding range, and no doubt many evanescent 

 sub-species have been founded on this fact. 



The food of the Grey Phalarope consists of small 

 Crustacea and other marine creatures, and though the 

 bird seems by choice to haunt fresh water as a general 

 rule, it undoubtedly prefers to be within reach of the 

 sea for feeding purposes, and likes to pick on ground 

 covered with seaweed. 



The Phalaropes can be recognised at a glance by 

 their feet, which are webbed in lobes like a Coot's 

 (whence ' Phalarojjc' and ' fulicarius'), not like a 

 Duck's foot. 



The eggs of the two species are so closely alike, and 

 eggs are collected in Iceland in very many cases by 

 persons so completely untrained in verifying them by 

 careful observation of the parent birds, that many of the 

 eggs sent to England purporting to be of this species 

 are doubtfully genuine. But the Grey Phalarope is a 

 vanishing species in Iceland, owing to the value 

 attached to the eggs, and, unless further protected by 

 a new 'Wild Bird's Protection Act,' must inevitably 

 become extinct there as a breeding species. I would 

 appeal, therefore, strongly to the better feelings of my 

 countrymen, and beg them to be content with eggs of 

 this species from Greenland or Spitzbergen or else- 

 where. They can readily be supplied through 

 American and German {via English) dealers. I dare- 

 say not more tlian twenty to thirty pairs breed in 

 Iceland now. 



