512 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



303. Red-necked Phalarope [SCHMALSCHNABLIGER 

 WASSERTRETEK]. 



PHALAROPUS ANGUSTIROSTRIS, Naumann.i 

 Heligolandish : Liitj Swummer-Stennick = Small Swimming Sandpiper. 



Phalaropus angustirostris. Naumann, viii. 240. 



Red-necked Phalarope. Dresser, vii. 597. 



Phalarope hyperbore. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 709, iv. 445. 



This small Phalarope is amongst our rarest occurrences. In 

 November 1837 I shot a young bird at sea, and on 15th of May 

 1870, 1 obtained an old one in pure spring plumage. Between these 

 two dates it has only been killed twice, which is the more singular, 

 as it is by no means an uncommon breeding species in northern 

 Norway. Its breeding range extends from the Hebrides and 

 Greenland to Behring's Strait, and from Alaska eastwards through 

 the whole of northern America. 



Rail Rallus. This peculiar genus contains, according to See- 

 bohm, fifteen species, which are met with both in the Old and New 

 World. Of these, only one belongs to Europe, and it occurs in 

 Heligoland. 



304. Water-Bail [WASSER-RALLE]. 



RALLUS AQUATICUS, Linn. 

 Heligolandish : Blii Ackerhennick = Blue Field-hen. 



Rallus aquaticus. Naumann, ix. 472. 



Water-Rail. Dresser, vii. 257. 



Rale d'eau vulgaire. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 683, iii. 438. 



This bird, peculiar not only in shape, colour, and markings, but 

 also in mode of life and habits, is universally known here, although 

 only few and solitary examples are met with, and these are seldom 

 caught. Though hardly ever shot, the bird occasionally gets into 

 the nets of such throstle-bushes as are put up in gardens, and is 

 frequently also caught by the hand in corners of court-yards and 

 garden hedges ; in fact, it very often seems to lose all shyness. On 

 one occasion I raised one in my garden, when it flew off over a fence 

 close by, about five feet in height, on the lower side of which there 

 is a small enclosed and level space of ground. I looked cautiously 



1 Phalaropus hyperboreus (Linn.). 



