102 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



slender and pointed ; iris umber ; crown, side of the head, back of the neck, back 

 and wing-coverts, dark blue-grey ; scapulars with black centres, fawn-coloured 

 margins and white tips ; wing quills nearly black, with white shafts and white 

 tips to the secondaries ; central upper tail-coverts brown, lateral ones white, with 

 brown centres ; tail grey-brown ; chin and throat white, a chestnut collar on the 

 throat nearly meeting behind, and varying a good deal in extent ; top and sides 

 of breast and of body dark grey ; centre of breast, belly, and under tail-coverts, 

 white; legs and feet greenish- grey ; claws black. Length 6^-7 inches, closed 

 wing 4i-4. Young males, presumably of the last year, have the grey feathers 

 on the breast margined with white, and the head more or less streaked with light 

 brown. Females are larger than males (7-7^ inches, wings 4^-4!) and generally 

 handsomer, the tints purer and brighter, and the head never (as far as I have 

 seen) streaked. 



Young birds (Eyvindarleikr, Iceland, 28, 7, '94, caught by my retriever and 

 unable to fly) have the crown black and eyelids white ; a downy fawn-coloured 

 streak from the forehead to the nape ; back black, margined on scapulars and 

 tertiaries with a good deal of rufous; no chestnut on the throat; feet yellow- 

 brown, and very little lobed. 



Adults in winter have the forehead and a broad stripe over the eye white, as 

 also the throat, sides of neck, breast, and under parts generally. The feathers of 

 the back have a good deal of chestnut margin and sometimes of white ; many of 

 the wing-coverts are tipped with white ; iris nearly black ; feet blue-grey. 



Nestling above yellow-brown, mottled with dark brown, several irregular black 

 longitudinal stripes on the upper parts, two of which commence on the crown, 

 and one through each eye ; under parts white. 



The nest, a deep comfortable cup, is concealed in a tuft of grass, or under a 

 trailing branch of some dwarf arctic shrub ; it is made of fine grass ; eggs four, 

 much pointed at the smaller end, their ground colour varying from olive-green to 

 almost russet, boldly blotched with black very handsome and attractive eggs. I 

 once found seven in one nest, but this must have been a joint-stock concern. 

 Jerdon ("Birds of India," ii, 695) asserts that the females (of all the Phalaropes 

 presumably) leave the care of the nests to the males and lead a club-life in 

 separate flocks. In the present species I have not found the sex to be so much 

 " emancipated." I have never shot the Red-necked Phalarope off the nest, often 

 as I have had the chance to do so, nor have I seen bare hatching spots on the 

 breasts of either sex. I have no doubt that the males are the most attentive 

 parents, but in the case of isolated nests, the second bird makes its appearance 

 before you have been there long, and I have repeatedly seen both with the young. 



