BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 275 



*'..,. 

 PHALAROPE, RED-NECKED. 



( Phalaropus hyperboreus.) 

 Order LIMICOL^: ; Family SCOLOPACID^: (SNIPES). 



Description of Parent Birds. 

 Length from seven to eight inches. 

 Bill of medium length, straight, 

 slender, and black. Irides dark 

 brown. Head, hind part of neck, 

 back, wing-coverts, scapulars, and 

 tertials dark ash-grey, the last two 

 sets of feathers being tipped with 



PHALAROPE. rusi colour - Wing -quills dusky, 

 some of them being tipped with 

 white. Rump and upper tail-coverts dusky, banded 

 with white ; tail-quills dusky or brownish-grey, 

 darkest in the centre. Chin white ; front and sides 

 of neck rusty-red ; upper breast grey, barred with 

 white ; under-parts white. Some specimens are 

 white from chin to vent. Legs, toes, and mem- 

 brane down either side of toes, green ; claws black. 



The female is rather larger, more richly coloured, 

 and is easily distinguished from the male by reason 

 of the fact that she has a white spot over the eye, 

 whereas her mate is ornamented in the same place 

 with a white streak. These distinctions, although 

 clearly seen in our tailpiece, are rarely, if ever, 

 shown in drawings of this species. 



Situation and Locality. On the ground, in 

 tufts of grass, in a hollow on the top of a small 

 hillock ; on moors and mountains not far from the 

 edge of a loch or pool, in the Orkneys and 

 Hebrides. 



I have devoted a considerable amount of time 



