78 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



our visit. I have no doubt that before long it 

 will be found breeding in the Outer Hebrides, 

 where I suspect it used to do so in times 

 gone by. 



The egg is white and rough, and the strong 

 odour always present on it prevents the possibility 

 of a mistake in identifying it. 



PHALAROPE, RED-NECKED. 



THE Bed-Necked Phalarope comes well inside the 

 first dozen British birds most persecuted for the 

 sake of their eggs. I spent a considerable amount 

 of time studying it in one of its old Hebridean 

 breeding haunts, where it is receiving shameful 

 treatment, last June, and was simply charmed 

 with it. 



The bird-lover's moments of ecstacy are always 

 great upon beholding for the first time the living 

 representatives of some rare species about which 

 he has read and dreamed for years ; and the con- 

 fiding nature and interesting habits of this elegant 

 little wader positively captivate the naturalist, 

 especially if he has sought for it, as I have done, 

 throughout some of its ancient summer homes in 

 vain. 



As I mentioned in my recently-published work, 

 "Wild Life at Home," the last pair of Eed- 

 Necked Phalaropes attempting to breed in Unst, 

 where the late Dr. Saxby met with them, had 

 been shot by a local gunner a week before my 

 brother and I arrived in the Shetlands last year 

 in defiance of the law protecting the species. A 

 collector w r as found some years ago waist deep in 



