GREY PHALAROPE. 45 



Wiltshire in the month of August, and retained at that time 

 a great portion of the true red colours of the breeding-season, 

 or summer plumage ; and I have occasionally seen specimens 

 obtained in December and January, and then exhibiting, of 

 course, the perfect grey plumage of winter. 



They feed on the smaller thin-skinned Crustacea and aquatic 

 insects, which they search for and pick up from the surface of 

 the water while swimming ; and their attitude resembles that 

 of the Teal, with the head drawn backwards. A specimen in 

 my own collection, killed in November 1824, while swim- 

 ming on the Thames near Battersea, was seen there by a 

 gardener, who went home, a distance of a mile and a half, 

 to fetch his gun, and on his return found the bird still swim- 

 ming and feeding near the same spot. 



This species breeds in Iceland, Greenland, on the North 

 Georgian and Melville Islands. The eggs are usually four 

 in number, of a stone colour tinged with olive ; spotted and 

 speckled over with dark brown ; measuring one inch two lines 

 in length, by ten lines and a half in breadth. The egg here 

 described, which is in my own collection, and is figured in 

 Mr. Hewitson's work, was brought from Melville Island, and 

 also the female bird in summer plumage, from which the 

 fiffure in the back-ffround of the illustration was drawn and 

 engraved. 



This species has now been obtained in so many different 

 counties in England, as to render the particular enumeration 

 of them unnecessary ; in some instances they were found to 

 be so tame as to allow of very close approach, and in one in- 

 stance that came to my own knowledge, the bird was struck 

 down by a labouring man with a spade. The Grey Phala- 

 rope has also been killed in Ireland and in Scotland. In 

 Denmark, Sweden, and Norway it is observed in spring and 

 autumn, when on its passage to and from its breeding stations 

 in higher northern latitudes. It visits Iceland and Greenland. 



