155 

 Phalaropiis fulicarius Jourdaini Iredale '), the Grey Phalarope. 



Plialaropus fiilicarius (L.), Trevor Battye (1897), p. 589. 

 Phalaropiis fulicarius (L.), Kolthoff (1903), p. 46. 

 CrymopJiilus fiilicarius (Linn.), Schalow (1904), p. 186. 

 Crymophilus fulicarius L., Zedlitz (1911), p. 321. 

 Phalaropiis fulicarius (L.), le Roi (1911), p. 171. 



In 1890 Kolthoff had found the "swömsneppe" in great num- 

 bers in Tundra Boheman. I can but confirm this observation and 

 add that they also bred in comparatively large numbers in this 

 tundra in 1921. 



I saw four nests of this species near Cape Boheman: one, found 

 on June 27, lay close to our settlement in a dry part of the tundra 

 (fig. 2, plate I) and contained four eggs, now in the possession of Rev. 

 Jourdain. On July 9 I found another nest in a very swampy part 

 of the tundra, almost in the water; on July 12 the nest was 

 abandoned and contained two whole eggs and two broken ones. 

 These eggs I gave also to the Oxford University Expedition. This 

 very same day Jourdain, Pagit Wilkes and myself found a nest 

 in a dry part of the tundra and further I still saw a nest on a 

 pretty wet spot near the shore, found by Huxley on July 12. Le 

 Roi too mentions (p. 174) that they breed in dry rocky parts as 

 well as in swampy ones. Breeding time lasts from the end of June 

 till the middle of July. 



The male of this species is much less conspicuously coloured 

 than the female (the white patch near the eye is smaller, the breast 

 less red). Its colours are so well protective that it is very difficult 

 to distinguish the bird on the nest. The male is somewhat smaller 

 than the female and is the one which breeds. I was able to ob- 

 serve many times the owner of the nest, found on June 27. Contrary 

 to the male Purple Sandpiper it was always looking in all directions, 

 when on the nest. When chased from the nest, it flew away noi- 



1) As Jourdain wrote me, the Spitsbergen birds were recently separated 

 from the typical (Hudsons Bay) race, as lacking the sandy colouring on the 

 back, so prominent in the $ of the American race. As no Hudsons Bay 

 specimens were available for comparison (those in the British Museum are 

 from Alaska), it is possible that the East American bird may be the same 

 as the Spitsbergen form. See Iredale, Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, October 1921. 



