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NOTES ON THb: BREEDING-HABITS OF THE 

 GREY PHALAROPE. 



BY 



MAUD D. HAVILAXD. 



Twenty miles to the north of Golchika on the River 

 Yenesei, Siberia, Avhere the two promontories of Och 

 ^larina and Sopochnaya stretch out across the mouth 

 of the river Uke the claws of a gigantic crab, I first saw 

 the Grey Phalarope {Phalaropiis fuUcarius) at midnight 

 on June 30th, 1914. The sun was shining on the snows 

 that still covered the tundra, and imder the lee of the 

 shore the shallows were packed with hissing, grinding 

 cakes of ice, white or golden, according as to whether 

 the rime or the sunshine reached their blue edges first. 

 Just then, half-a-dozen Grey Phalarope came whirling 

 over the river — five birds in ardent pursuit of a sixth 

 which doubled away from them. The flash of their 

 red breasts over the sun-lit ice made the eye blink at 

 the riot of colour of the wonderful northern day-in- 

 night, and by the time that I had done blinking, the 

 birds had hurried past me and disappeared over the 

 tundra. 



This is, of course, a wholly frivolous and even futile 

 record, but I have given it place, partly because it has 

 stuck in my memory as a mental snapshot of curious 

 distinctness, and partly because that was the only time 

 that I ever saw the Grey Phalarope in a hurry. In the 

 breeding-season, at least, this species seems to have none 

 of the fractious intolerance and ardour of courtship 

 that may be observed in the Red-necked Phalarope on 

 the Yenesei. 



On June 30th, numbers of Grey Phalarope were to 

 be seen feeding together in the marshes at Golchika, 

 and the sexes waded quietly side by side, in little parties 

 of half-a-dozen birds. By July 2nd most of these 

 birds had disappeared, most probably to continue their 



