74 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



nodding its head in a farm-yard pond among the 

 geese and ducks ; but there it was shot, as a matter 

 of course. 



The Red-necked Phalarope is a small swimmer 

 that breeds now in the northern districts of Scotland 

 in very limited numbers. The insatiate greed of 

 collectors, or those who collect for them, has in 

 some places -exterminated the innocents. We are 

 well acquainted with the details of that business, a 

 far from creditable one mere bird slaughter in fact. 

 The confiding innocence of the creature leads to its 

 destruction. Northern regions are the real breed- 

 ing-places of this Phalarope ; but a few, as we have 

 stated, nest in Scotland and the isles, leaving when 

 the duties of incubation are over. For good reasons, 

 not one of the few nesting sites now left will be 

 mentioned by me. The females of the Grey and 

 Red-necked Phalaropes are similar in colouring to 

 the males, but they are larger and brighter coloured. 

 The males do the principal part of the hatching-out 

 business, and look after the young ones when 

 hatched ; thus reversing the general order of 

 domestic bird life. 



The Phalaropes may be called wandering migrants : 

 they come and go as the winds and waves compel 

 them. Some migrants can be looked for in their 

 appointed seasons with some degree of certainty, 

 but this can hardly be said of these two species. As 

 might naturally be expected from the long flights 

 they take, they are swift-winged birds and strong 

 withal, as they well need be. 



