72 PHALAROPE 
it visits this country, as it does almost every year.’ It wears 
a very different aspect in summer, when the whole of the lower 
parts are bright bay, while the feathers above are dark brown 
broadly edged with light rusty, and hence it has in this condition 
been called the Red Phalarope. It is known to breed in Spits- 
bergen, in one part at least of Iceland, in Greenland, and presum- 
ably throughout Arctic America and Asia, but not on the continent 
of Europe. Its wanderings in winter seem to be boundless, since 
its appearance is recorded in Chili and in New Zealand. The next 
species, known as the Red-necked Phalarope, P. or Lobipes hyper- 
boreus, is truly a British bird, breeding in a few spots (which are 
best not named) in Scotland and its islands. Of more slender form, 
its plumage is comparatively piain, but the bay patch on the side 
of the neck contrasts with the white chin to give it a conspicuous 
appearance. It does not range northward so far as the last, but it 
is found breeding in Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia and America—from 
Alaska to Labrador, as well as in Greenland, while in winter it 
would seem not to stray quite so far to the south. The third 
species, P. or Steganopus tricolor or wilsoni, of still more slender 
form, has a very restricted breeding-range in North America, not 
being recorded from the Pacific slope and being rare on the Atlantic 
coast. In winter, however, it reaches Patagonia. Did space allow, 
the various qualities of this beautiful group of birds would be 
willingly dwelt upon here. A more entrancing sight to the ornitho- 
logist can hardly be presented than by either of the two species 
first named. Their graceful form, their lively coloration, and the 
confidence with which both are familiarly displayed in their breed- 
ing-quarters can hardly be exaggerated, and it is equally a delight- 
ful sight to watch these birds gathering their food in the high- 
running surf, or when that is done peacefully floating outside the 
breakers. The nest, which the male—for in the Phalaropes, as in 
the DOTTEREL and the Gopwits, that sex undertakes the duty of 
incubation—leaves only to escape being trodden upon, is in itself 
a picture that the finder will recall with rapture, while the tameness 
of the birds tempts the observer to watch their ways by the hour, 
be the weather never so bad ? (see SANDPIPER). 
1 In numbers it is very variable. In the autumn of 1866, more than 5C0 
were recorded as observed and mostly shot in Britain, according to the Summary 
which Mr. J. H. Gurney, junior, was at the pains to compile and publish in 1867. 
* Here may be noticed the ‘‘ Barred Phalarope,” described in 1785 by Latham 
(Gen. Synops. iii. p. 274) from a specimen in Banks’s collection obtained at 
Christmas Island on Cook’s Third Voyage, the Zringa cancellata of Gmelin. It 
seems not to have been a Phalarope at all, and in 1859 G. R. Gray (Cat. B. Isl. 
Pacif. p. 51) referred to it the 7. parvirostris described and figured by Peale as 
found in July 1839, by the United States’ Expedition under Wilkes, abundantly 
on some of the Paumotu Islands, where it was breeding and exceedingly tame. 
In 1874 Prof. Coues (B. North- West, p. 506) established for it the genus Zch- 
