712 PHALAROPE 



it visits this country, as it does almost every year.^ It wears 

 a very different aspect in summer, when the whole of the lower 

 parts are bright bay, while the feathers above are dark brown 

 broadly edged with light rusty, and hence it has in this condition 

 been called the Red Phalarope. It is known to breed in Spits- 

 bergen, in one part at least of Iceland, in Greenland, and presum- 

 ably throughout Arctic America and Asia, but not on the continent 

 of Europe. Its wanderings in winter seem to be boundless, since 

 its appearance is recorded in Chili and in New Zealand. The next 

 species, known as the Red-necked Phalarope, F. or Lohi])es liyper- 

 boreus, is truly a British bird, breeding in a few spots (which are 

 best not named) in Scotland and its islands. Of more slender form, 

 its plumage is comparatively plain, but the bay patch on the side 

 of the neck contrasts mth the Avhite chin to give it a conspicuous 

 appearance. It does not range northward so far as the last, but it 

 is found breeding in Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia and America — from 

 Alaska to Labrador, as well as in Greenland, while in Avinter it 

 would seem not to stray quite so far to the south. The third 

 species, F. or Steganopus tricolor or wilsoni, of still more slender 

 form, has a very restricted breeding-range in North America, not 

 being recorded from the Pacific slope and being rare on the Atlantic 

 coast. In winter, however, it reaches Patagonia. Did space allow, 

 the various qualities of this beautiful group of birds would be 

 willingly dwelt upon here. A more entrancing sight to the ornitho- 

 logist can hardly be presented than by either of the two species 

 first named. Their graceful form, their lively coloration, and the 

 confidence with which both are familiarly displayed in their breed- 

 ing-quarters can hardly be exaggerated, and it is equally a delight- 

 ful sight to watch these birds gathering their food in the high- 

 running surf, or when that is done peacefully floating outside the 

 breakers. The nest, which the male — for in the PhalaroiDCS, as in 

 the Dotterel and the Godwits, that sex undertakes the duty of 

 incubation — leaves only to escape being trodden upon, is in itself 

 a picture that the finder will recall with rapture, while the tameness 

 of the birds tempts the observer to watch their ways by the hour, 

 be the weather never so bad ^ (see Sandpiper). 



^ In numbers it is very variable. In the autumn of 1866, more tliau SCO 

 were recorded as observed and mostly shot in Britain, according to the Summary 

 which Mr. J. H. Gurney, junior, was at the pains to compile and publish in 1867. 



^ Here may be noticed the "Barred Phalarope," described in 1785 by Latham 

 {Gen. Synops. iii. p. 274) from a specimen in Banks's collection obtained at 

 Christmas Island on Cook's Third Voyage, the Tringa cancellata of Gmelin. It 

 seems not to have been a Phalarope at all, and in 1859 G. R. Gray {Cat. B. Isl. 

 Pacif. p. 51) referred to it the T. parvirostris described and figured by Peale as 

 found in July 1839, by the United States' Expedition under Wilkes, abundantly 

 on some of the Paumotu Islands, where it was breeding and exceedingly tame. 

 In 1874 Prof. Coues {£. North- West, p. 506) established for it the genus ^clv- 



