180 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CHAEADEIID^. Genus PHALAROPUS. 



Subfamily 



GREY PHALAROPE. 



PHALAEOPUS FULICABIUS 

 PLATE XXV. 



Tringa fulicaria, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 249 (1766). 



Phalaropus lobatus (nee Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 284 (1852). 



Phalaropus fulicarius (Linn.), Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 606, pi. 538 (1874) ; Yarrell, 



Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 310 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 85 (1885) ; Dixon, 



Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 243 (1894) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. 



pt. xxx. (1895); Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 130, pi. 38 (1896). 

 Crymophilus fulicarius (Linn.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 193 (1896) ; Sharpe, 



Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 693 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British: The Grey Phalarope is a rare 

 and irregular visitor, chiefly in autumn and winter, and is generally met with 

 sparingly almost every year, occasionally appearing in great " rushes," or "visita- 

 tions," after the manner of the nomadic migrants, in which class it must he 

 placed. It has been most frequently observed on the southern coasts of_ Eng- 

 land ; on the eastern coasts least frequently north of the Wash. In Scotland it 

 appears to have been met with from Berwick to the Orkneys, and has been 

 obtained in the Outer Hebrides. It has occurred in Wales, but is altogether 

 rarer on our western coast-line ; whilst in Ireland it is of very infrequent appear- 

 ance, although several were captured in the south during the exceptional visitation 

 of 1886. The last exceptional visitation appears to have been in 1891. By far 

 the most extensive visitation took place in the autumn of 1866, when it has been 

 estimated that upwards of five hundred birds were taken, nearly half of this vast 

 number in Sussex ! Twenty years previously, in the autumn of 1846, another 

 irruption took place, which curiously enough again favoured Sussex in a remark- 

 able degree. By a noteworthy coincidence, twenty years later than the great 

 visitation, namely, in the autumn of 1886, another and smaller one occurred ; 

 whilst in 1869 it is said an irruption took place of some importance, both of which 

 were almost confined to the south. Many of these visitors wandered from the 

 coast to inland districts. Foreign : Circumpolar region, but not known to breed 

 on any part of Continental Europe. Like the Knot, the Curlew Sandpiper, and 

 some few other Arctic birds, it appears to be very local during the breeding 



