4 SCOLOPACID^. 



nests they flew to the nearest pool of water, where they swam about quite 

 unconcerned, throwing their little heads back, and ever and anon dipping their 

 bills into the water, looking very much like a lot of miniature ducks. They were 

 extremely tame, so much so that a dog we had with us caught several in 

 its mouth. The note is a sharp tweet, tweet. They are said to arrive in North 

 Uist about the end of May, leaving again early in the autumn. I visited the 

 colony in the middle of June, and found most of the eggs pretty well incubated. 

 There are also large colonies of Phalaropes breeding in the islands of Benbecula 

 and South Uist.' " 



Messrs. H. J. Pearson and E. Bidwell, referring to the nesting habits of this 

 species as observed by them in Norway in 1893, write as follows * : — " Numerous 

 on one of the Lofodens and in the Porsanger. They often nest quite on the edge 

 of small tarns or peat-holes, in grass about 6 in. high ; a few were in marsh ground 

 covered with grass of same height ; the nests were neatly made of fine grass, and 

 rather deep in proportion to their width. In most instances where we saw this 

 species there were three birds — two males and one female. Twice we saw parties 

 of three birds each on the sea, feeding just behind the breakers ; repeatedly we 

 noticed three birds together on the wing ; and nearly every time w^e came upon 

 them in the small lakes of the tundra the party consisted of two males and one 

 female. Can this species be polyandrous 1 " 



Referring to this Phalarope the late Dr. T. M. Brewer writes f : — " Mr. Mac- 

 Farlane found this species breeding in great abundance in the Arctic regions 

 through which he passed, from the edge of the wooded country to the shores of 

 the Arctic Sea. In more than fifty instances in which he made notes of its nests 

 and eggs, he found the former to be mere depressions in the ground lined with a 

 few dried leaves and grasses, and in almost every instance placed near the edges 

 of small ponds ; the number of the eggs was almost invariably four. The nests 

 were seen from the 17th of June until into July, and in several instances perfectly 

 fresh eggs Avere found as late as July 5. They were tolerably numerous in the 

 wooded country, were also found in the Barrens wherever there were small lakes, 

 and were not less frequently seen at the very edge of the Arctic Sea and on the 

 islands off the coast. Sometimes the birds permitted the near approach of man 

 without any noise or special manifestations of uneasiness ; but at other times 

 both parents would make great outcries, and fly fi:om tree to tree in order to draw 

 the intruder away from the nest." 



Mr. E. W. Nelson gives the following account of the breeding habits of this 



* " On a Birds'-nesting Excursion to the North of Norway in 1S93," ' Ibis,' 1894, p. 234. 

 t ' Water Birds of North America,' vol. i. p. 335. 



