THE PHALAROPES 259 



the open sea far from land, and frequently to alight on floating banks 

 of seaweed on which they "walk about as unconcernedly as on land." l 



Phalaropes nest inland in marshy places, generally where there 

 are small pools and puddles of water, and in the vicinity of small 

 lakes. They spend much of their time on the water, sporting 

 with each other, and hunting for aquatic insects and other small 

 forms of life which they catch on or near the surface of the water, 

 and which at this season of the year form almost their sole food- 

 supply. 



Both species undergo a considerable seasonal change of plumage. 

 This is most marked in the grey-phalarope, which from the delicate 

 grey of winter changes in spring to a rich admixture of black and 

 brick-red. The rednecked-phalarope has a darker grey winter 

 plumage, and in spring less brilliant colouring than the grey- 

 phalarope, but considerably more colour and contrast than when in 

 its own winter plumage. There is a very decided sexual difference in 

 the spring plumage, and, contrary to the general rule, the advantage 

 in brilliancy is entirely with the female, which is also the larger. 

 This caused early observers to mistake male for female. Macgillivray 

 described the females as less pure in colour than the males, although 

 curiously he gave the relative sizes correctly; and Salmon, who visited 

 the Orkneys in 1834, described the female rednecked-phalarope as 

 lacking "that brilliant bay colour upon the sides of the neck and 

 breast so conspicuous in the male," not knowing that the smaller 

 duller individuals were the males, and that with this inferiority in 

 dress, usually in birds associated with the gentler sex, the males 

 also accept the feminine responsibility of hatching the eggs and 

 rearing the young. 2 This was, I believe, first noticed and recorded 



1 Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. iv. p. 296. 



2 Since this was written I find that there is in the Fauna of the Orkneys, p. 207, a quotation 

 from a paper read before the Linnean Society in June 1804, by T. W. Simmonds, recording for 

 the first time the breeding of the rednecked-phalarope in Great Britain. He did not actually 

 find a nest, but he obtained birds of both sexes on Sanday and North Ronaldsay, and from the 

 condition of the ovaries of the females concluded that egg-laying had recently taken place. 

 He also pointed out that the female was larger and more beautiful than the male, and also 

 that only birds of the latter sex had bare breasts, indicating that they alone incubate. The 



VOL. III. 2 L 



