BIRDS. 207 



Himantopus candidus, Bonnat. Black-winged Stilt. 



With the exception of the two mentioned by Messrs. Baikie and 

 Heddle as having been killed at Lopness, Sanday, in 1814, we 

 have no record of this species in Orkney. 



Phalaropus hyperboreus, L. Red-necked Phalarope, 

 Orc.=Half-web (B. and H.). 



First recorded as a British species by Pennant in 1769, from a 

 specimen sent from Stronsay. 



In a paper by T. W. Simmonds, read before the Linnean 

 Society in June 1804, that gentleman first records the breeding 

 of this species in Great Britain, having found it in Sanday and 

 North Ronaldsay, though he was unfortunately unable 

 actually to find the nests themselves. As this paper has not 

 often been quoted, we extract the following paragraphs : 



"It might have been doubted that the female was more 

 beautiful, and even somewhat larger, than the male, had not 

 the size, etc., of the sexual organs been sufficiently evident to 

 prevent the possibility of a mistake." 



"Six females and two males were dissected. From the 

 small size of the ovaria, the thickness and length of the oviduct 

 of the female, and large flaccid testes of the male, it was con- 

 cluded that the eggs had not been long laid, and that the 

 males were not young ones, as their less bright plumage at 

 first gave reason to suspect." 



" From the deficiency of feathers on the belly of the male, 

 from the duller plumage, from the very few that appeared, and 

 from the difficulty which these required to be driven from those 

 tufts where the nests perhaps were, would it be absurd to sup- 

 pose that the males alone perform the business of incubation 1" 



" As none of the inhabitants had observed them before, they 

 had no provincial name, nor was it possible to ascertain whether 

 they frequented any of the other islands." 



"If upon more accurate inquiry this should prove to be a 

 new species, perhaps there would be no objection to the name 

 Williamsii, as it is to the liberality of Mr. J. Williams, of 

 Dartford, that I am indebted for the discovery." 



