BIRDS. 209 



Books, as showing the gradual decrease of this bird in those 

 days : 



" Two specimens, blown with one hole, and a bit of paper 

 pasted over the hole. . . . These two eggs brought to me at Cam- 

 bridge Terrace this morning, December 8th, 1851, by Mr. Charles 

 Hubbard of Ditchburgh, Norfolk, the inventor of the portable 

 gutta-percha boat. He visited Sanday where he saw Mr. Strang 

 of Lopness. There were then very few Phalaropes, and he paid 

 strict attention to the wishes of the proprietors. These were the 

 only two eggs he received this year of the bird, they were both 

 in the same nest in the island of Sanday and his correspondent 

 could find no more." (Wolley, Egg-Book, iv. p. 580.) 



Again, Wolley writes in his Egg-Book 



"Ked-necked Phalarope. Sanday, Orkney, 1853. Three 

 others (eggs) sent by post to T. Edge from William Kirk, of 

 Start Point Lighthouse, with a letter, which I have somewhere " 

 (747). Mr. W. Kirk writes 



"Start Point Lt. H., 7th Oct. 1854. SIR, I am sorry I have 

 only found two eggs this summer, as that bird has become very 

 scarce, but next year they may be more numerous, etc., etc." 



These eggs seem to have been broken in transmission. 



The following is an extract from some of our notes : 



"The Eed-necked Phalarope seems to have been pretty 

 common in Sanday about twenty-five years ago. At that time 

 a party landed from a ship and destroyed the greater part 

 of them. None were seen at the locality for ten years after- 

 wards, until last summer (1880), when six frequented one of 

 the lochs for some time. Our informant seemed certain they 

 had bred there." From Mr. Vaughan, 16/11/80. 



In a letter from Dr. W. Traill of N. Ronaldsay to Mr. 

 Spence, dated May 1882, he says 



" I am not aware of the Eed-necked Phalarope having been 

 here since about 1833 or 4, when I remember shooting a pair 

 of them, which, I believe, are now in the College Museum in 

 Edinburgh. I, however, saw one or two, not long ago, in 

 Sanday, which were shot by Captain Harwood on his property 



there. I am sorry I cannot get the eggs here ; possibly D 



L may know something about them." 







