86 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Spitzbergen, and in the Taimyr peninsula. It has also occurred in Lapland 

 and in the Tchuski Land, though it is not known to breed in either of these 

 localities. On the American continent it breeds from Alaska to Greenland, 

 and ranges as far north as lat. 82| in British North America. It is a 

 somewhat irregular visitor on migration to Europe, and has occurred once 

 in Tangiers. It is not known to pass through Turkestan or South 

 Siberia on migration, but it winters on the Mekran coast and Scind. 

 Severtzow says that it is a rare visitor to the Pamir, and a single example 

 has been recorded from Calcutta. I have examples in my collection from 

 Kamtschatka and the Kurile Islands. On the American continent it has 

 occurred on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts, at least as far south 

 as lat. 40 ; and Audubon records the occurrence of a flock, consisting of at 

 least a hundred individuals, on the banks of the Ohio, in lat. 38. The 

 Grey Phalarope has no very near ally. 



The Grey Phalarope is one of the few British birds that I have never 

 had an opportunity of seeing alive. It seems to be a gipsy migrant, in 

 mild seasons many of the adults remaining to winter in the Norwegian 

 fjords, whilst birds of the year wander further south. On the Asiatic coast 

 it appears to find abundant food during winter in the sea round the 

 Kuriles. Its unusual migrations are probably the results of excessive 

 cold or violent storms in its usual winter-quarters. Respecting the great 

 migration of these birds to England in 1866, Gurney remarks that severe 

 gales prevailed during September, and that icebergs came further south 

 than had ever been known before. 



In winter these birds spend most of their time on the sea, picking 

 up food from the surface of the water. They are even more gregarious in 

 their habits than the Red-necked Phalarope, and are often found in large 

 flocks. Those which have been obtained in this country appeared to 

 be singularly tame; but Hume, who met with them in their winter- 

 quarters on the coast of Scind, found them " very wary, rising en masse, and 

 skimming along the surface of the water for a couple of hundred yards or 

 so as soon as the boat approaches within a hundred yards of them." They 

 float very buoyantly on the water and rise with great ease. When swim- 

 ming they progress in a jerky manner with a bobbing motion of the head ; 

 but it is not known that they ever dive. They are frequently seen at great 

 distances from shore; and Mr. Kumlien once met with flocks of Grey 

 Phalaropes two hundred miles from the Labrador coast ; he also says that 

 they follow the whales, approaching them when they blow to catch the 

 small marine animals that are disturbed. From this peculiarity this bird 

 is frequently known as the " Whale Bird " and the " Bow-head Bird " 

 amongst the whalers. Sabine saw the Grey Phalarope floating amongst the 

 icebergs several miles from shore ; and it always appears to prefer to escape 

 from danger by swimming than by using its wings. 



