VOL. IX.] NOTES ON GRF.Y PHALAROPE. 13 



Tliis nest, however, was not placed very well for photo- 

 graphy, for about fifty yards away was a turf hut, which 

 a Russian family had just taken possession of for the 

 summer, and I dared not leave the hiding tent or appa- 

 ratus near the spot. On the following day I was more 

 fortunate, and found a nest which was also on the island 

 but about half a verst away. It was in rather a dryer 

 situation than the last, but like all the nests of this 

 species that I saw, the eggs lay on quite a substantial 





Fig. 2. NEST OF GREY PHALAROPE, YENESEI, JULY, 1914. 

 (Photographed by Maud D. Haviland.) 



platform of dead grass. In other cases the sites were 

 SO wet that the bird must have been sitting actually 

 in water — and the photographer would have had to do 

 likewise ! In the photograph, the grass has been parted 

 in order to show the eggs, but before this was done they 

 were screened as carefully as the eggs of a Redshank 

 or Reeve. 



I pitched the tent at once, and went in to hide. The 

 male Phalarope stood on a tussock about twenty yards 

 away and watched attentively. I should not thus have 

 tackled the nest of any other Wader, but I relied upon 



