THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 511 



of America. The two former species are met with in Heligo- 

 land. 



302. Grey Phalarope [PLATTSCHNABLIGER WASSERTRETER]. 

 PHALAROPUS PLATYRHYNCHUS, Temminck. 1 



Heligolandish : Groot Swummer-Stennick = Great Sivimming Sandpiper. 



Phalaropus platyrhynchus. Naumann, viii. 255. 



Grey Phalarope. Dresser, vii. 605. 



Phalarope platyrhinque. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 712, iv. 446. 



The name which Heligolanders have assigned to this small and 

 peculiar bird is a very descriptive one, for in its whole external 

 appearance it really displays a good deal of resemblance to the 

 Sandpipers. Its mode of life and habits, on the other hand, are, so 

 far at least as my own observations go, entirely different. I have 

 never seen it on the shore, but invariably on the water, though 

 sometimes close to the shore; nor have I ever noticed that it 

 exhibited the least desire of exchanging the one place of resort for 

 the other. To watch this pretty bird actively pursuing its search 

 for the larvse of aquatic flies which form its food, on the waves 

 nearest the shore, affords one of the most peculiar and pleasing 

 insights into bird-life. Light as a feather, and seeming hardly to 

 touch the water, with a turn now to the right now to the left, the 

 bird allows itself to be carried by an inrolling wave quite close to 

 the shore, only rising above its clear crest at the very moment when 

 this is about to break in surf, so that each time that one fears the 

 bird will be dashed beneath the water and buried in the rolling 

 surf, it is already actively swimming about on the next advancing 

 wave. I have sat for hours on the extreme point of the shore of 

 the dune deeply absorbed in contemplating the familiar confidence 

 displayed by these delicate creatures in an element of which every 

 motion calls into activity forces of stupendous power. 



This bird is not a frequent occurrence in Heligoland. I have 

 only once obtained an example which showed any approach to the 

 pure spring plumage. Young birds of the year, on the other hand, 

 with the feathers of the upper part black and edged with straw 

 yellow, are shot on the sea every autumn, and now and again also 

 an old individual with the back of a pure grey colour. 



The bird occurs as breeding species in Greenland, Spitzbergen, 

 on the Arctic coast of Asia, and in Arctic North America to beyond 

 82 N. latitude. 



1 Phalaropus fuliearius (Linn. ). 



