262 THE PHALAROPES 



that the females regarded the display as an infringement of their 

 rights, or as unbecoming forwardness on the part of the males, they 

 were often driven to resent " these attentions, and a pitched battle 

 would ensue." 



Dr. Bahr concluded that the females arrived first at the nesting 

 quarters ; the earliest date on which he saw them was May 28. " On 

 June 2nd one pair had already settled its affairs." On the 3rd, 4th, 

 and 5th four females and one male were seen. " These amazons 

 were fighting continuously amongst themselves, and were causing the 

 solitary male much anxiety." Later on Dr. Bahr describes how " two 

 energetic and quarrelsome females attached themselves to one 

 miserable-looking male, and it was ludicrous to behold the awe in 

 which he held them. Once in particular he nearly swam between my 

 legs in his efforts to avoid their attentions." 



With regard to the actual display of the female in courting, 

 she has been described by Mr. H. S. Gladstone as swimming coyly 

 round and round the male, showing off the while her larger stature 

 and more brilliantly coloured plumage. The male may take flight to 

 a neighbouring pool, but "is so assiduously persecuted that he at 

 last falls victim to her wiles." l This description of a circling dance 

 on the water has been confirmed by Mr. O. Y. Aplin, who found the 

 rednecked-phalarope breeding in Norway. He says : " This play con- 

 sisted in the female spinning round rather rapidly on her own axis 

 on the water, the wish to display and show off before her duller mate 

 being very evident." 2 



Apart from this display in the water, it has been observed that the 

 female rednecked-phalarope occasionally rises on the wing above the 

 male, "and, poised a foot or two over his back, makes a half-dozen 

 quick, sharp wing strokes, producing a series of sharp whistling noises 

 in rapid succession." 3 Procter, in his observations of the same 

 species in Iceland, stated that the female, when descending from a 



1 British Birds (magazine), vol. i. p. 174. t Zoologist, 1896, 458. 



3 E. W. Nelson, " Report upon Natural History Collections made in Alaska, 1877-1881," see 

 Wonders of the Bird World, Bowdler Sharpe, pp. 236-8. 



