PLATE I 

 RED-NECKED PHALAROPE. Pkalaropus kyperboreus. 



June z6th, 1897. I photographed this nest in some marshy ground beside 

 a loch in the south of the Mainland of Shetland. I was wading about in some 

 small pools, watching five or six of these beautiful little birds, when I saw one 

 rise and fly away some distance to a flat piece of ground. I marked the place 

 and hurried towards it. On my way I put up another bird, so, dropping my 

 handkerchief, I went to the first place, and put up the little bird from her nest. 

 It contained four very typical eggs, and was concealed among some leaves of 

 the bog-bean. I took a photograph, which is here reproduced, and went back 

 to my handkerchief; as I stooped to pick it up, the little bird was about two 

 feet from it, and disclosed the second nest, containing three eggs. 



I came across two broods already hatched, and spent some time watching 

 them. They were so absurdly tame that the old birds fed their little ones 

 with small insects within ten feet of us. The young ones, though evidently 

 not long hatched, picked at the leaves and grasses as they walked about on 

 their little shaky legs. They seemed much more at home on the water, where 

 they swam with ease, uttering a feeble 'peep-peep' from time to time. 



