204 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



some years ago at Sutton Ambion, near Market Bosworth, in 

 Leicestershire. As far as the circumstances can be ascertained, 

 the occurrence seems to be perfectly genuine. 



Range outside the British Islands. Wilson's Phalarope is gene- 

 rally distributed through temperate North America, principally 

 inland, and breeds from Northern Illinois and Utah to the 

 Saskatchewan region, ranging south in winter, through Central 

 America and South to Brazil and Patagonia. 



Habits, Mr. D. G. Elliott gives the following account of its 

 habits : " As a rule, Wilson's Phalarope goes in small com- 

 panies, though at times large flocks of several hundreds are 

 met with. It is not very shy, frequently permitting one to 

 approach within a few feet, and it does not swim so much upon 

 the water as is the habit of the other species, but wades about 

 up to its belly, picking its food from off the surface. When 

 necessary, however, it swims gracefully, and with ease, and the 

 young, soon after emerging from the egg, are equally at home 

 upon the surface of ponds, paddling about and diving with 

 facility. The female is the larger and altogether the handsomer 

 bird, the male having very little of the brilliant tints which ren- 

 der his mate so attractive when arrayed in her full summer dress. 

 Upon him, too, devolves the duty of incubation to a very great 

 degree, the female amusing herself upon or near the water. 

 Like the other species of Phalarope, she makes all the advances 

 at pairing-season, and sometimes more than one female fixes 

 her affection upon some particular male, who thereupon has 

 but little peace, as he is pursued from place to place by the 

 rival suitors. Finally, the matter having been successfully 

 arranged, the winged Dido bears off her ^Eneas, and a slight 

 depression having been scratched in the soil, and lined with 

 grass, or a loosely-constructed nest made in a clump of grass, 

 the eggs, three or four in number, are deposited, and the male 

 assumes the novel and unusual duties for one of his sex, of incu- 

 bation. Wilson's Phalarope is a rather silent species, its note 

 having a kind of nasal quack-like sound. Its food is similar 

 to that of the other Phalaropes." 



Eggs. Vary from a fawn-colour to a rufous-drab, profusely 

 spotted and speckled with rufous shades of brown, thickest at 

 the larger end. Axis, 1*35 inch; diam., 0*95. 



