BIRDS OF KOLGUEV 433 



SCOLOPACID.E 



Phalaropus fulicarius (linn.). Grey Phalarope. 

 Plavunchik-plosconosey ( R . ). 



I saw but a single pair of these birds, near the Kriva on June 16. 



P. hyperboreus LINN. Red-necked Phalarope. 

 Plavunchik-cruglonosey (R.). 



This was a very familiar bird on Kolguev, and was generally dis- 

 tributed. Every little lake in which there was any vegetation held its 

 one, two, or three pairs. The lobing of the feet was well-marked 

 in even the tiniest young which Hyland found on July 12. The 

 stomachs of some we examined on June 16 were filled with larvae 

 of the musquito. The following from my diary of July 12 is worth 

 quoting. ' A little stint which I moved to-day kicked her tiny young 

 ones away. The action was so evidently intentional that I spent some 

 half-an-hour in experimenting the point. Six times I let her settle 

 down to brood them, and six times I moved her, and always she did 

 the same. Once she kicked only one away, four times she kicked 

 two, and once three — one a few inches to the side of the spot, and 

 two a long foot on either side behind her. The little ones instantane- 

 ously recovered themselves, for sometimes they were lying on their 

 backs, and squatted absolutely still. Then on returning she would 

 brood first one and then another, until she had called them all together 

 again. When Hyland joined me I was on the point of mentioning 

 this to him when he said, talking of a red-necked phalarope's young 

 which he had found, " That old phalarope got off in such a hurry that 

 she knocked two of the young ones right head over heels." 



I had been struck last year when in Norfolk by exactly the 

 same action on the part of a ringed plover. My note made at the 

 time, after describing the case, adds : ' It could not be clumsiness, 

 because these birds are exceedingly careful when moving off their 

 eggs. Gallinaceous birds and ducks, when disturbed and starting 

 suddenly off, are very apt to jerk an egg or two out of the nest— 



2E 



