174 



THE RED-NECKED PHALAROPE IN IRELAND. 



BY 



HUGH S. GLADSTONE, r.z.s., etc. 



In setting down what I know of the Irish colony of the 

 Red-necked Phalarope [Phalaropus hyperhoreus), I regret 

 that my experience of collectors, both of birds' eggs and 

 skins, compels me to withhold those details I should like 

 to have given. 



The spot these birds have chosen as their breeding 

 haunt is a small maritime marsh with a shallow stream 

 flowing through it, dotted over with brackish pools left by 

 the sea at high tide. The outskirts of their territory, 

 bounded by low sandhills, are shared by Dunlins, where 

 earlier in the year. Snipe have brought out their young 

 before the Phalaropes' arrival during the first week of 

 June. 



How long the colony may have been in existence we do 

 not know. Mr. E. Williams (c/. Irish Nat., 1903, p. 41), 

 states that the birds had bred in this j^lace for " many 

 years." I am told that it was in June, 1900, that two or 

 three pairs of Red-necked Phalaropes were first noticed 

 here, and their nests were subsequently discovered. They 

 were in no way molested, and the following year about 

 the same time they returned again to nest in increasing 

 numbers. The tenant of the property wrote in 1902 : 

 " During my tramp through the bog I counted seventeen, 

 but there may have been many more ; the most of the birds 

 I saw were females." In 1904, when I personally visited the 

 locality on July 9th, I should guess there were thirty pairs. 

 N^ext year, on July 4th, I walked over the ground carefully 

 and should estimate that the pairs were then close on fifty 

 in number, while the range of the nesting haunt had 

 considerably increased. 



