82 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



ages, from lisping little toddlers to grey-headed 

 old men and women, systematically searching the 

 environs of the marsh for eggs, and it is surprising 

 that any birds should be left to come back summer 

 after summer to attempt the almost hopeless task 

 of perpetuating their species. 



The particular locality in which the birds live 

 is the arm of an old loch which has become 

 silted up, and has the bare suggestion of a stream 

 running through it with a number of small shal- 

 low pools on either side. The whole bog can be 

 easily waded, although I floundered into a deep, 

 treacherous hole once or twice, to the wetting of 

 my much-upturned trousers. 



Whilst standing on the edge of the swamp 

 during my first visit, I saw two birds about the 

 size of a Dunlin engaged in combat. Turning 

 my field-glasses upon them, I was delighted to 

 find that they were Bed - Necked Phalaropes. 

 Swimming round and round each other they 

 charged angrily two or three times, when one of 

 them, evidently considering that he had had 

 enough of that sort of recreation, flew away, and 

 left his enemy with what I judged to be a female, 

 from her greater richness of coloration and 

 slightly larger size. Altogether I saw five birds 

 at that particular spot, which appeared to be the 

 principal rendezvous of the whole stock. They 

 swam about close to me with the utmost assur- 

 ance, and fed with an energy approaching that 

 of Starlings. Several times I saw them leap up 

 to catch some insect resting high on a rush stern. 

 The odd bird was evidently an unpaired individual, 

 for every time he swam too near the others he 

 was promptly beaten off. The pairs generally fed 

 close to each other, and if they chanced to 



