GREY PHALAROPE. 87 



The food found in the stomachs of some of those examples which 

 were captured in England consisted of gnats, which they were seen to catch 

 on the surface of the water with great rapidity, other small water-insects, 

 crustaceans, little worms, and bits of vegetable fibres. This species also 

 obtains much of its food from the large floating masses of seaweed, 

 running about them as unconcernedly as if it were on dry land*. 



At their breeding-grounds they are described as being very tame and as 

 running with great rapidity on the margins of the pools and lakes where 

 they rear their young, and, when alarmed, preferring to seek safety on the 

 water than to take wing. Faber, who met with this species breeding in 

 Iceland, describes their call-note as resembling the syllable eem; whilst their 

 alarm-note, which is principally heard on the wing, is represented by the 

 syllables bick-a, bick-a, rapidly repeated. This last note must be almost 

 the same as that of the Red-necked Phalarope. They are said not to 

 make any nest, but to deposit their four eggs in a slight depression in 

 the grass or amongst the shingle ; occasionally a few leaves are added as 

 a lining. The eggs are laid about the middle of June, young in down are 

 seen running about early in July, and by the middle of August both old 

 and young have left their breeding-grounds. 



The eggs of the Grey Phalarope are four in number. The ground- 

 colour is pale huffish brown, slightly tinged with olive. They are profusely 

 spotted and blotched with very dark brown, the spots being largest and 

 frequently confluent at the large end of the egg ; the underlying spots 

 are few in number and very pale greyish brown. They vary in length 

 from 1'28 to 1'2 inch, and in breadth from -9 to "85 inch. The eggs of 

 this species very closely resemble those of the Red-necked Phalarope, but 

 may generally be distinguished by their larger size. Only one brood 

 appears to be reared in the year. 



As in the Red-necked Phalarope, the male appears to be less brilliantly 

 coloured than the female, because he occupies himself principally with the 

 duties of incubation and the care of the young. The adult female Grey 

 Phalarope in breeding-plumage has the whole of the underparts chestnut, 

 except the axillaries and under wing- coverts, which are white, and the chin 

 and upper throat, which are dark brown ; the chestnut extends on the sides of 

 the neck and almost meets at the nape, and the brown on the chin extends 

 to the forehead and crown, leaving a large white patch round the eye. The 

 back, scapulars and innermost secondaries, and the shortest upper tail-coverts 

 are black with huffish-yellow margins, and the longest upper tail-coverts are 

 chestnut like the underparts ; the wings and tail (which is much gradu- 

 ated) are slate-grey, the greater wing-coverts have broad white tips, the 

 secondaries have narrow white tips, the two centre tail-feathers are suf- 

 fused with brown, and the two outer tail-feathers on each side are suffused 

 with chestnut towards the tips. Bill yellow, black at the tip ; legs olive- 



