10 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. viii. 



thoroughly. At the south side of the loch, which is a 

 favourite haunt of the birds, a single female Phalarope 

 was found, and afterwards a pair, msle and female, 

 which apparently were mated and swimming together 

 in a reed-grown creek. The hirds were very tame, and 

 paid little attention to the photographers. This was the 

 only male bird we saw that day, and from subsequent 

 observations, we believe that this must have been an 

 exceptionally early couple. Later, Miss Haviland went 

 round to the north side of the marsh, and saw three 

 more birds, all of which were females. These birds 

 were rather wild, and were resting under the lee of the 

 reeds. From the relative numbers of the sexes in the 

 birds we saw, and the early date, we consider it probable 

 that the females arrive at this breeding-station before 

 the males. 



On June 11th we went with Miss Turner to the bog 

 hoping to find nests. In this we were unsuccessful, 

 but many more birds of both sexes were to be seen, 

 some of them in pairs. In one reed- bed, they flew 

 overhead, uttering their querulous, piping cry, which 

 led us to hope that we might find them breeding there, 

 especially as the owner of the bog informed us that 

 he had in previous years seen young birds following 

 their parents by the third week in June ; but we found 

 no sign of nests. From the birds' behaviour, it seemed 

 as if they were still courting, and had not begun to lay, 

 much less to incubate. We saw one party of four or five 

 females chasing one male bird up and down the loch 

 while he vainly tried to escape from their attentions. 

 On the whole, it appeared that more hens than cocks 

 were to be seen on this occasion also ; but it is not easy 

 to distinguish the sexes in flight, and a mistake might 

 well have been made on this point. 



On the south side of the loch, just where we had seen 

 the pair of birds on our previous visit, we found a male 

 and female in the long herbage at the water-side. Perhaps 

 we ought to reverse the usual order and say female and 



