GREY PHALAROPE. 85 



PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS. 

 GREY PHALAROPE. 



(PLATE 27.) 



Phalaropus phalaropus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 12 (1760, winter plumage). 

 Phalaropus rufescens, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 20 (1760, summer plumage). 

 Tringa fulicaria, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 249 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



(Bonaparte), (Sivainsori), (Audubori), (Baird, Brewer, and Ridgivay), (Coues), 



(Dresser), (Saunders), &c. 



Phalaropus lobatus (Linn.), apud Tunstall, Orn. Brit. p. 3 (1771). 

 Phalaropus rufus, BecJist. Naturg. Deidschl. ed. 2, iv. p. 381 (1809). 

 Phalaropus platyrhynchus, Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 459 (1815). 

 Phalaropus griseus, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. fyc. Brit. Mus. p. 34 (1816). 

 Crymophilus rufus (Bechst.), Vieitl. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. viii. p. 521 (1817). 

 Phalaropus fulicarius (Linn.), Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. fy N. Amer. p. 54 (1838). 

 Phalaropus platyrostris, Nordmann, Demidoff, Vay. Russ. Merid. iii. p. 250 (1840). 

 Phalaropus asiaticus, Hume, Stray Feath. i. p. 246 (1873). 



The Grey Phalarope was first described as a British bird in 1757 from 

 an example which was shot near Halifax, in January of that year, by 

 Mr. Thomas Bolton, a florist of Worley Clough, in Yorkshire, who sent it 

 to Mr. Edwards, who described it in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' 

 (1. p. 525), and afterwards figured it in his ' Gleanings in Natural History' 

 (iii. pi. 308). It must be regarded as a rare accidental visitor to our 

 shores, but one which, like the Waxwing, occasionally appears in great 

 numbers. The most important migration of Grey Phalaropes to our 

 islands occurred in the autumn of 1866. From August the 20th to 

 September the llth the recorded captures averaged one a day; from 

 September the 12th to the 25th, an average of fifteen a day was secured ; 

 whilst from September the 26th to October the 8th the average again fell 

 to one a day. To these must be added about a hundred and fifty of which the 

 precise dates are not known, and probably as many more whose capture has 

 not been recorded. Knox, in his ' Ornithological Rambles in Sussex/ states 

 that in September 1846 great numbers of Grey Phalaropes appeared on 

 various parts of the coast of Sussex. With the exception of these two 

 irruptions, it is not known that the Grey Phalarope has ever visited this 

 country in any numbers, though a year seldom passes without a few being 

 observed, generally in small parties. Most of these occurrences have been 

 on the south coast of England, though some examples have been obtained 

 inland, in various localities, both in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. 



The Grey Phalarope is a circumpolar bird, and breeds in Iceland, 



