140 BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



In the autumns of 1866 and ]869 there was an 

 extraordinary arrival of these beautiful birds along 

 the south-east and southern coasts, this immigration 

 not extending further north than the county of Nor- 

 folk. I can find no notice of even a single specimen 

 having been seen or captured on the Lincolnshire 

 coast in either of these seasons, and in East Yorkshire 

 only two*. 



190. PHALAROPUS HYPERBOREUS (Linnaeus). Red- 

 necked Phalarope. 



The following extract from the 'Zoologist' for 

 1871, p. 2471, refers to the only bird of this species 

 I have hitherto met with in this county : " Decem- 

 ber 12th, 1870. I came quite suddenly this morning 

 on a beautiful little Phalarope swimming in a drain 

 near the Humber. I saw at once by its small size 

 (about as large as a Dunlin) and plumage that it was 

 not the grey species. The little bird rode as buoy- 

 antly as a Gull upon the water, with head thrown 

 backward like a duck. It was the first occasion that 

 I have seen a Phalarope in these marshes ; I observed 

 all its movements intently. It was shy, but not wild, 

 diving on my approach for twenty yards up the drain, 

 and then, leaving the water, ran along the narrow strip 



* See a pamphlet by Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jim., ' On the Occur- 

 rences of the Grey Phalarope in Great Britain during Septem- 

 ber 1866.' In the immigration of Grey Phalaropes during the 

 autumn of 1866, very few examples occurred north of Eamsgate. 



