256 THE PHALAROPES 



THE PHALAROPES 

 [W. FARREN] 



These pretty little birds are the most aquatic in habit of all the 

 Waders. Their toes, lobed like those of coots, are admirably adapted 

 for swimming, and their plumage being exceedingly dense like that 

 of gulls and other swimming birds, gives them a buoyancy on the 

 water that adds much to their grace and charm. 



Of our two species, the grey-phalarope is but a visitor and 

 a very irregular one chiefly on the autumn migration. Many years 

 pass with but few records of its appearance, and then comes a year, 

 as in 1866, when it appears in large numbers, chiefly on the south- 

 east and south coast, when many fall victims to the deplorable habit 

 that human beings have of killing anything that appears strange, 

 more especially if tame and confiding, as phalaropes always are. It 

 was computed that from August to October in 1866 two hundred 

 and fifty were killed in Sussex alone, and some five hundred in all. 

 Other years have seen similar visitations, when the birds were 

 nearly if not quite as numerous. In 1889, or about then, large 

 numbers visited the coast at and near Brighton, upwards of fifty 

 specimens being received at one naturalist's shop, for which the 

 price of 3d. a dozen was paid ! l 



Howard Saunders does not mention an earlier record than 1866 

 for one of these great autumn visitations of the grey-phalarope. 

 But in the Zoologist for 1859 there is an interesting account of the 

 occurrence of large numbers at Plymouth in the autumn of 1858. 

 The recorder, John Gatcombe, further states : " In 1846 an extra- 

 ordinary flight visited Plymouth and the neighbouring coasts : they 

 remained about three weeks, and in such numbers were they that 



1 Other dates of visitations of the grey-phalarope on its autumn passage are 1869, 1891, 

 and 1896. 



