264 THE PHALAROPES 



her at once, she will immediately return and give him a severe 

 punishment, which never fails to have the desired effect." 



The male prepares the nest by scraping away the grass with his 

 feet, and then revolving his body in the cleared space forms a nest- 

 hollow, and lines it with dead grass stems, which he carefully bends 

 into the hollow. 



The eggs of the grey-phalarope resemble closely in appearance 

 those of the rednecked species, and like them are normally four in 

 number, but they are as a rule appreciably larger. The average size 

 of 22 eggs is T23 x -83 in. [311 x 21 '8 mm.], but measurements of the 

 two species overlap, and undoubtedly genuine eggs of the grey- 

 phalarope from Spitsbergen (where the rednecked species does not 

 breed) are smaller than the average of the latter bird. They are 

 pyriform in shape, laid with converging points, and are heavily 

 blotched with chocolate or blackish brown on a greenish grey, olive- 

 grey, or reddish buff ground. They are laid in the latter part of June 

 or early in July. 1 



The females depart from the nesting grounds directly after the 

 eggs are laid, leaving the males to hatch out and bring up the young. 

 After the young are hatched, they, and the male tending them, would 

 appear to be very retiring, for Herr Manniche never succeeded in 

 meeting with a bird guiding young ones, in spite of a careful search 

 in the spots where the species had nested. He presumed that the 

 males leave the nesting region very early as soon as the young birds 

 are able to fend for themselves. 



When incubating, the male is described as very tame, almost 

 allowing himself to be caught on the nest. One whose nest was on 

 a small islet in shallow water had bent down the long withered grass 

 with which the nest was surrounded over himself, and did not 

 leave the nest until the grass had been parted and the bird almost 

 touched. " When frightened up from the nest, the bird for a short 

 while lay screaming and flapping on the water." 



1 F. C. B. Jourdain (in litt.). 



