258 THE PHALAROPES 



certainly appears to be quite as numerous there as on the Scottish 

 mainland. 



Both of our species of phalaropes penetrate far into the Arctic 

 to breed, their nesting range being circumpolar. The grey-phalarope 

 appears to be the more restricted in its range, for while its southern 

 limit is in Iceland, where it occurs in very small numbers, the red- 

 necked-phalarope is abundant there, and the latter also breeds in 

 the Faeroes, the Shetlands, the Orkneys, on the Scottish mainland, 

 and in Ireland. These British localities are probably the only places 

 where phalaropes nest south of the Arctic Circle. In winter they 

 penetrate as far south as the Bermudas and Guatemala in the west, 

 and the Indo-Malayan region in the east, 1 but their exact migratory 

 routes, and where the bulk of them pass the winter months, is 

 uncertain. So far as Europe is concerned, they appear to travel 

 by way of Scandinavia and Western Europe. Howard Saunders 

 states that the rednecked-phalarope avails itself of the route by the 

 valley of the Yolga while the grey-phalarope does not, and that 

 both species are found on many inland waters and the coasts down 

 to the Mediterranean. 2 



Phalaropes, although fond of visiting inland waters on migration, 

 have also frequently been seen on the open sea many miles from 

 land : Howard Saunders states that the grey-phalarope may be seen 

 " sometimes hundreds of miles from land and also picking the para- 

 sites off the backs of whales and other cetaceans." 3 Of the same 

 species it is stated that " Sabine shot one out of a flock of four, on the 

 west coast of Greenland, in latitude 68, while they were swimming in 

 the sea amongst icebergs"; and "Richardson in his Natural History 

 Appendix to Parry's Second Arctic Voyage, says they were observed 

 upon the sea, out of sight of land, preferring to swim out of danger 

 rather than take wing." 4 Of the rednecked-phalarope, Audubon 

 quoted by Macgillivray states that they may be seen swimming on 



1 Manual of British Birds, p. 568. * Ibid., pp. 566-567. 3 Ibid., p. 566. 



4 Yarrell's British Birds, 4th ed., vol. iii. p. 313, also 1st and other editions. 



