86 THE BIRDS OF DORSET. 



of 1847 and 1849, for example, a considerable num- 

 ber of Grey Phalaropes appeared, and in the spring of 

 1849 one in summer plumage (rarely obtained in 

 England) was shot by the Rev. C. Torkington at 

 Weymouth Breakwater. It is curious, as remarked 

 by Mr. Harting, that although the Grey Phalarope 

 is sometimes quite numerous in the eastern and 

 southern counties of England, at the period of its 

 autumnal migration (at which season it has assumed 



the winter plumage), it is very rarely met with here in 

 spring in the very different plumage of the breeding 

 season ; indicating that on its return northwards to its 

 breeding haunts in spring it adopts a route which 

 does not take the main body of the migrating birds 

 through the British Islands, as is the case in autumn. 

 An extraordinary visitation of this species occurred 

 in the autumn of 1866, chiefly on the south and 

 south-east coasts of England, between August 2oth 



