THE RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. 197 



brown, in some instances, with a slight olive tinge. More 

 rarely eggs with a light clay-brown ground are found. The 

 markings are heavy, and consist of large spots of dark brown 

 or blackish, often confluent at the larger end of the egg, and 

 forming large blotches. The underlying spots are of a greyish- 

 brown. Axis, 1-15-1 "4 inch; diam., 'O^-Q'Q. 



THE RED-NECKED PHALAROPES. GENUS PIIALAROPUS. 



Phalaropus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 12 (1760). 

 Type, P. hyperboreus (L.). 



In the Red-necked Phalaropes the bill is very long and 

 slender, and tapers to a point without being widened in any 

 way. The tarsus is longer than the middle toe and claw. 



Only one species is known. 



I. THE RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. PHALAROPUS 

 HYPERBOREUS. 



Tringa hyperborea, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 249 (1766). 

 Lobipes hyperboreus, Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 291 (1852). 

 Phalaropus hyperboreus, Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 597, pis. 537, 



539, fig. 2 (1874); B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 164 



(1883) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell, Brit. B. iii. p. 315 (1883) ; 



Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. 89 (1885); Saunders, Man. 



Brit. B. p. 551 (1889). 



Adult Female in Breeding Plumage. General colour above dark 

 slaty-grey, with a band of sandy-buff down each side of the 

 mantle; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts slaty-blackish 

 with white margins ; some of the lateral tail-coverts, for the most 

 part, white, with blackish spots ; wing-coverts slaty-black, the 

 greater series tipped with white, forming a band ; bastard-wing 

 and inner primary-coverts tipped with white, like the greater 

 coverts ; primary-coverts and quills blackish, the primaries with 

 white shafts, the secondaries edged with white, the median ones, 

 for the most part, white on the inner web also; scapulais 

 lengthened like the inner secondaries, and most of them exter- 

 nally spotted with sandy-buff, forming a parallel band to the 



