550 GREY PHALAROPE. 



and even on the coast its favourite haunts are pools of fresh or 

 brackish water sheltered from the sea. 



The breeding-range of the Grey Phalarope appears to be circum- 

 polar. Its eggs were found by Dr. von Middendorff in Arctic 

 Siberia, and have also been obtained in Spitsbergen and Iceland, 

 but the majority of those sent to collectors of late years are from 

 the districts of Upernavik and Egedesminde in Greenland. Our 

 Arctic explorers have noticed the bird as far north as 82° 30', 

 and it is abundant in summer on the shores of Alaska, as well as 

 on the Asiatic side of Bering Sea and on all the islands to the 

 northward. In winter its migrations have been known to extend to 

 New Zealand and Chili ; in the Indian region it has occurred as far 

 south as Bombay, though its regular lines of passage across Asia 

 have yet to be learned ; in Europe, though missing the Volga valley, 

 it is found on many inland waters and on all the coasts down to the 

 Mediterranean ; while it also visits North Africa. 



Courtship, assiduously conducted by \hefema/c, takes place on 

 the return of the birds to their breeding-grounds about the middle 

 of May, and early in June the eggs, 4 in number, are laid in a 

 scantily-lined hollow of a knoll near some small pool in the spongy 

 peat or moss ; these are olive-buff, thickly blotched with umber- 

 brown — less pointed, more boldly marked, and rather larger than 

 those of the Red-necked Phalarope: average measurements i'2 by 

 •87 in. Incubation is chiefly performed by the male ; the young are 

 on the wing by the middle of July, and depart by the end of 

 August. The food consists of small crustaceans and marine animals, 

 the latter obtained by the birds whilst swimming buoyantly on the 

 waves, sometimes hundreds of miles from land. The note is a 

 sharp tweet, but the female sometimes utters a low dink, dink. 



The female, which is larger and handsomer than the male, has — 

 in breeding time — the beak orange-yellow ; base of bill and crown 

 blackish ; cheeks distinctly white ; under parts reddish-chestnut ; 

 feathers of the mantle nearly black, with broad rufous margins ; 

 wing-coverts lead-grey tipped with white ; legs, feet and lobed mem- 

 branes yellow. This stage is shown by the bird in the background. 

 Length 8*25 in. ; wing 475 in. The male is duller, and has the 

 white on the cheeks less defined. In autumn the chestnut gradually 

 disappears ; by winter the under surface has become pure white, 

 the back pearl-grey, and the once rufous margins are white, the 

 bill is black, the forehead white, and a black streak runs backwards 

 from the eye ; the bird in the foreground is in this stage. The 

 young resemble the adults in autumn plumage. 



