GREY PHALAKOPE. 439 



older ones have still shown traces* of the rich bay tints 

 cf their summer plumage, which contrast so strangely 

 with the delicate grey and white of their winter dress. 

 In this species, as with the dotterel (Charadrius mori- 

 nellus) , the female is both larger in size and brighter in 

 the colours of its nuptial dress than the male ; and a 

 still greater anomaly is pointed out in the following 

 passage from Gould's " Birds of Great Britain," " I am 

 informed by Professor Steenstrup, of Copenhagen, that 

 the duty of incubation appears to be performed by the 

 male only a circumstance which appears to be confirmed 

 by the bare state in which the breasts of specimens of that 

 sex are often found." Mr. Harting, who has recently had 

 an opportunity of observing the habits of this graceful 

 little bird, remarks ("Zoologist," 1870, p. 1973) that a 

 specimen which he afterwards secured for his collec- 

 tion, when " swimming round and about, now and then 

 pecking at some water-weed, seemed to resemble the 

 gallinules ; like them nodding the head at every stroke 

 of the foot. When standing on the ground at a little 

 distance, it looked not unlike a ringed-plover, but at 

 this season of the year it was much whiter." Its food 

 consisted of small flies and beetles, with a slight admix- 

 ture of vegetable matter. 



PHALAROPUS HYPERBOREUS (Linnaeus). 

 KED-ISTECKED PHALAKOPE. 



This species, which is readily distinguished from that 

 last described by its smaller size, and longer and more 



* See some remarks on the autumnal change of plumage in 

 the grey phalarope, by Mr. M. A. Matthew, in the " Zoologist " 

 for 1866 (p. 500). Mr. Blake Knox, also (" Zoologist," 1867, p. 683) 



