50 LOBIPEDID.E. 



tufts of grass groAving close to the edge of the loch ; they 

 were formed of dried grass, and were about the size of that 

 of a Titlark, but much deeper. The eggs are considenxbly 

 smaller than those of the Dunlin, and beautifully spotted all 

 over with broAvn. They had but just commenced laying, 

 June 13, as we found only from one to two eggs in each 

 nest ; but we were informed by a boy whom we engaged in 

 our service, that they always lay four, and are called by the 

 name of Half-web. Mr, Dunn, who visited Orkney and 

 Shetland in 1831, 1833, and 1835, says, "I never saw this 

 bird in Shetland, but I got several in Orkney ; it sometimes 

 builds its nest on small green islands in the middle of the 

 lakes. The places where I procured their eggs, and found 

 the birds most numerous, were in a small sheet of water three 

 or four miles from the lighthouse of Sanda, a lake near Nunse 

 Castle in Westra, and at Sandwick, near Stromness." 



This species has been obtained in Norfolk, Yorkshire, and 

 Northumberland. Passing over the Scottish localities already 

 named, M. Nilsson mentions that the Red-necked Phalarope 

 visits Sweden and Norway, where a few remain to breed on 

 the margins of fresh-water lakes, but the greater part going 

 still further north, are known to visit Lapland, the Faroe Is- 

 lands, and Iceland. Mr. W. Proctor, Subcurator of the 

 Durham University Museum, visited Iceland in the summer 

 of 1837, and in some notes on the habits of birds seen there, 

 which were published in the Naturalist, mentions, that " The 

 Red-necked Phalarope, or Lobefoot, breeds on little hillocks 

 among the marshes. The nest is composed of a few stems 

 of dried grass. The eggs are four in number, of an oil-green 

 colour, thickly spotted with black ; in dimensions one inch 

 and an eighth long, and two inches three-quarters round, or 

 about the size of that of a common Thrush. The young birds 

 leave the nest as soon as hatched. On the approach of dan- 

 ger the old bird runs among the aquatic herbage, spreading 



