90 BRITISH BIRDS. 



occasionally in North India. It passes the coasts of Japan on migration, 

 and winters in China and the islands of the Malay archipelago as far south 

 as New Guinea. In the western hemisphere it winters in the United 

 States, Mexico, and Central America. Several examples have been 

 obtained on the Bermudas. The Red-necked Phalarope has no very near 

 ally. 



The Red-necked Phalarope is a most charming bird at its breeding- 

 grounds. Nothing can exceed its tameness when newly arrived. It 

 frequents the little pools on the tundra, and sometimes half a dozen may 

 be seen swimming about together. When one of them is shot the others 

 fly up out of the water, but after wheeling once or twice they generally 

 settle round their fallen comrade. They can, if they choose, fly with 

 great rapidity ; and I have seen them flying over the swamp where they 

 were breeding with all the rapidity of a Snipe, and suddenly altering the 

 direction of their flight, as that bird is capable of doing. Few, if any, 

 birds float so lightly on the water as the Red-necked Phalarope, where its 

 actions resemble very much those of a Waterhen. It proceeds by a series 

 of short jerks, in a more or less zigzag direction, apparently keeping time 

 by a nod of the head to each stroke of its feet. 



Its note, which I have had many opportunities of hearing, is a clear 

 sharp wick, very similar to that of the Little Stint and the Sanderling, and 

 having no resemblance at all to the terrr of the Dunlin or Temminck's 

 Stint. Saunders appears to have copied Dresser in ascribing the latter 

 note to the Red-necked Phalarope. Dresser appears to have copied 

 Naumann, who admits that he only once met with this species. I am in- 

 clined to think that the latter writer, who also evidently refers to the note 

 which I have described, and which he gives as prip on the authority of 

 Faber, has wrongly ascribed the Dunlin's note to the Red-necked Phala- 

 rope. Audubon describes the note as a sharp clear tweet, tweet. 



The food of the Red-necked Phalarope is composed of insects, small 

 crustaceans, larvae, and worms. Much of this food is picked up from the 

 surface of the water, and many insects are caught whilst flying past in the 

 air. 



The Red-necked Phalarope breeds on the tundras above the limit of 

 forest- growth, and prefers marshy ground covered with long grass, similar 

 to that frequented by the Reeves. In this long grass it builds its nest, 

 which is a somewhat slight structure of dry stalks, generally placed in the 

 middle of a thick tuft, so that it is not unfrequently a foot or more from 

 the ground. In some places Harvie-Brown and I found the nests of this 

 bird where the grass was short, and in these situations it was scarcely 

 more than a hollow in the ground lined with dead grass. We invariably 

 found the eggs with the small ends pointed inwards, and there was always 

 a lining to the nest. 



