THE LONG-BILLED PHALAROPES. 201 



Here the captive male is introduced to new duties, and spends 

 half his time on the eggs, while the female keeps about the pool 

 close by. In due time the young are hatched and come forth, 

 beautiful little balls of buff and brown. During incubation, if 

 the nest is approached, the parent bird usually flies off the eggs 

 when the intruder is some yards away, and proceeds to feed 

 about the surface or edge of the nearest pool, as though nothing 

 unusual had occurred. At times the parent shows a little anxiety, 

 and swims restlesslyabout the pool, uttering a low, sharp, metal- 

 lic ' pleep? When a bird leaves the eggs, it is usually joined at 

 once by its mate. In one or two instances a parent bird came 

 gliding stealthily through the grass to the nest while I was occu- 

 pied in packing the eggs in my basket." 



Nest. Messrs. Pearson and Bidwell state that the nests 

 which they found in the north of Norway were neatly made 

 of fine grass, and rather deep in proportion to their width. 

 On the Lofodens and in the Porsanger-fjord the species often 

 nested quite on the edge of small tarns or peat-holes, in grass 

 about six inches high ; a few were in marsh ground covered 

 with grass of the same height. Mr. Seebohm found the nest 

 in the Petchora to be a somewhat slight structure of dried 

 stalks, generally placed in the middle of a tuft, so that it is not 

 unfrequently a foot or more from the ground. In some places, 

 where the grass was short, the nest was scarcely more than a 

 hollow in the ground, lined with dry grass. 



Eggs. These are easily distinguished from those of the Grey 

 Phalaropes by their smaller size, and by their somewhat darker 

 general tone, the spots being often very large, and forming 

 blotches, which cover a great part of the egg. Axis, 1*05-1-25 

 inch; diam, o'75-o'85. 



THE LONG-BILLED PHALAROPES. GENUS STEGANOPUS. 



Steganopus, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxxii. p. 136 (1819). 

 Type, S. tricolor (Vieill.). 



The Genus Steganopus differs from the other genera of 

 Phalaropes in having a longer bill, the web between the outer 



