PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS. 200 
[§ 3960. Mowr—Upernivik, North Greenland. From Herr 
Olnk, through Mr. H. S. Hawkins, 1867. 
Mr. Hawkins wrote to me:—“ Among the eggs sent me, but not yet arrived, 
though I am expecting them daily, are those of the Grey Phalarope, of which 
IT had especially asked Mr. Olrik, the Inspector of North Greenland, to try and 
get me as large a series as possible, thoroughly and carefully identified. This 
he tells me he has done, and that he can guarantee the eggs sent, the bird 
having been in every case carefully watched, and in most cases shot off the 
nest, and several skins are sent with the eggs. It has struck me that you 
might like to have some of these, as, if I remember rightly, you are not well 
off for this species. They are sent in nests of three or four eggs each generally.” . 
A few weeks after he wrote again :—“TI intend sending you to-morrow a box 
with the Phalaropes’ skins and one nest of eggs, off which two of the birds 
were shot—the taking of which nest Mr. Olrik particularly describes, so that 
if the skins are those of Ph. platyrhynchus there can be no doubt as to the 
eggs; but I am curious to hear from you when you have seen the skins.” 
The skins sent were unquestionably those of P. platyrhynchus or, to use the 
older name, P. fulicarius; but I do not feel so confident as to all the four eggs 
belonging to the same nest. | 
[§ 3961. Zhree.—Point Barrow, Alaska, 23 June, 1882, From 
the United States National Museum, through Prof. Baird, 
1886. 
Sent by Capt. Bendire at Prof. Baird’s request. They had been received by 
the Smithsonian Institution from the United States Signal Service, as having 
been taken as above, and their catalogue number is 18654. In the account of 
the Birds observed by the International Polar Expedition to Point Barrow, 
under the command of Lieut. P. H. Ray, of the United States Army, which 
was contributed by Sergeant Murdoch, the Naturalist of the Expedition, to the 
‘Report’ published at Washington in 1885, it is said (p. 115) of this species:— 
“The nest is always in the grass, never in the black or mossy portions of the 
tundra, and usually in a pretty wet situation, though a nest was occasionally 
found high and dry, in a place where the nest of the Pectoral Sandpiper would 
be looked for. A favorite nesting site was a narrow grassy isthmus between two 
of the shallow ponds. The nest is a very slight affair of dried grass and 
always well concealed. 
“Some of the pairs have their full complement of eggs laid by the middle of 
June, but others are much later, as fresh eggs were obtained as late as June 29, 
in 1882. Four is the usual number of eggs in a complete set, although sets of 
three incubated eggs are to be found.” 
Mr. Murdoch also states that “ The whole duty of raising and taking care of 
the brood, after the eggs are laid, falls upon the males, who hatch the eggs and 
take care of the young brood, while the female spends her time away feeding. 
We never found a female sitting on eggs, or took one with her breast plucked. 
It was invariably the male bird that was started off the eggs.” 
