PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS. 201 
appear that he took them himself, and I consider there may still be some 
hesitation as to accepting them as genuine. Still it would seem from the 
testimony of others that there is really no constant difference in appearance 
between eggs of these two species, which is curious when the manifest 
difference in structure is considered. These specimens did not come into my 
possession till some time after those mentioned in the next section, which I 
take to be genuine. Herr Herluf Winge (Grénlands Fugle, p. 175) states 
that the Royal Museum of Copenhagen received eggs of this species from 
Hunde Eiland takenin July, 1861. | 
[§ 3958. Four.—vU'tskalar, South-western Iceland, 1862. 
From Pastor S. B. Sivertsen. 
P. Z.S. 1867, p. 165, pl. xv. fiz. 1. 
Sent to me by the Pastor and referred to in his letter of 3 July, 1862, That 
they are really eggs of this species I have scarcely a doubt. On the 5th and 
6th of July, 1858, I found two pairs of this bird by the side of the tarn at 
U'tskalar', close to the parsonage. I watched them for several hours and 
reluctantly came to the conclusion that neither pair had a nest. They were 
exceedingly tame as they ran on the short turf or occasionally swam on the 
water. I took the Pastor and others to look at them, and bade them observe 
the difference between these birds and the common Odinshani, or Red-necked 
Phalarope, though, indeed, they seemed to be well-known to everyone, and 
were called by the name Raudbrystingr—which, I believe, is more commonly 
applied to the Knot, but its meaning (Redbreast) suits either species in breeding- 
plumage. I kept up communication with the Pastor from time to time and 
besought him to obtain me egys of this bird, which was believed to breed there 
in some seasons, though not regularly. On the 15th August, 1862, I received 
from him the letter above mentioned, which Mr. Ik, Magnussun subsequently 
translated for me as follows :— 
“JT have been very desirous of being able to accomplish your request in 
getting and despatching the eggs of Phaluropus platyrhynchus, for which the 
late Mr. Wolley reiterated the request in a letter to me of 13 May, 1859; but 
in this I have not succeeded until this hour, for the bird is very cautious and 
does not breed except in small hillocks in bogs near lakes or pools, and there- 
fore the eggs are not at all easy to be discovered. Now this spring I charged 
several peopie to search both here and at other places, and one night they at 
last succeeded in finding one nest containing four eggs; but, strange to say, 
1 (It was at Sandgerdi (which he writes Sangjer), a little to the southward, 
where we saw only P. hyperboreus (§ 3951), that Faber (Prodromus der isliindischen 
Ornithologie, p. 88 ; Isis, 1824, p. 462; and ‘Dag-Bok’ MS. p. 567), 22 June, 1821, 
found some pairs of this species breeding, Eggs he did not then get, but the 
people living there (who called the bird by the same name as they used for it to us) 
told him they were very like those of the other species, only a little bigger. On the 
9th of July following, being near Eyrarbakki, he shot a cock-bird anxiously tending 
the newly-hatched young, which were able to run and hide in the grass,—Hp. | 
