98 BRITISH BIRDS WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



eight, and line a shallow saucer in the top with grass. Four eggs are the 

 complement, but three, sometimes two only, are found. In Spain they are 

 laid early in May, but further eastward in June. The eggs, which are usually 

 smeared with mud, are less than 2 inches in length, sometimes if- only, by 

 about ij in breadth, and, as well as being decidedly smaller, are darker in 

 ground colour than those of the Avocet, being of a brown stone-colour, spotted 

 and blotched with black. Mine came from Egypt (Stafford Allen), and Algeria 

 (Tristram). 



The extraordinary development of leg in this species especially lends itself 

 to wading, and the Stilt, which cannot reach the ground comfortably when on 

 dry land, feeds accordingly in about six inches of water, picking from the 

 surface and the water plants insects and mollusca, catching swimming larvae 

 and Crustacea. On the wing its long legs trail behind it, looking like the 

 long pink tail of one of the " Bosen-birds." It is a quiet bird, as a rule, 

 (though Chapman once speaks of a "chattering pack" of Stilts) and, until 

 taught caution by man, a pretty tame one, stalking gravely about in the 

 marshes. When man approaches its nest, it utters a loud clear whistle, which 

 Naumann compares to that of the Dusky Redshank. 



Family SCOL OP A CIDSE. 



GREY PHALAROPE. 



Phalaropus fulicarius, LlNN. 



THE Phalaropes (literally "Coot-feet") are a small well-marked group, distin- 

 guished at once by the lobed webs to the toes, which are quite unlike 

 anything else to be found amongst the Limicolae. The present species gains its 

 vernacular name from the grey winter plumage, in which alone it is known on 

 our shores ; it has hardly ever occurred even in partial summer dress. It is only 



