The Zoologist— January, 1870. 1973 



remarked that, while certain species in their neighbourhood are 

 becoming annually scarcer, certain others are becoming more nume- 

 rous. Nor has this substitution, so to say, of one species for 

 another, been remarked by ornithologists only. Botanists and 

 entomologists have similar testimony to advance. Indeed, when we 

 consider the gradual but important changes which are taking place in 

 the soil itself, we can scarcely wonder that the species existing thereon 

 should be likewise affected. 



I have been led to these reflections from having recently seen on 



the Sussex coast several examples of the gray phalarope [Phalaropus 



fuUcarius), a bird which, nesting in Iceland, and visiting this country 



in autumn, has of late years been more than usually common at that 



season of the year. 



On reading the various reports which have been published in 

 connection with the occurrence of this species in England, the 

 following interesting facts may be elicited: first, these little birds 

 come to us in the autumn, generally arriving during the early part of 

 September ; secondly, the direction in which they migrate appears to 

 be from the north-east to the south-west, as shown by their being most 

 frequently found in the south-eastern and southern counties of Eng- 

 land; thirdly, a great proportion of them are birds of the year, as is 

 the case with the majority of our shore birds, which pass northwards 

 through this country in spring and return again in autumn with their 

 young; fourthly, they do not as a rule remain with us throughout the 

 winter, but pass on further south ; fifthly, those which return to their 

 northern haunts in the spring do not return by the same route, and I 

 do not remember any instance in which the species has been obtained 

 in England in the breeding plumage ; sixthly, during their stay in this 

 country they evince a partiality for the neighbourhood of fresh water 

 pools, ponds and dykes, in preference to the sea-shore on which they 

 first alight. 



We have yet to ascertain in what latitudes the gray phalarope is 

 most numerous in winter, and by what route it returns northwards to 

 its breeding-ground. 



During the autumn of 1866' a vast number of gray phalaropes were 

 seen and shot in the south-eastern and southern counties of England. 

 So numerous indeed were they, that Mr. J, H. Gurney, jun., in a 

 pamphlet on the subject, published a summary of the occurrences, 

 with the dates of observation, of move than five hundred individuals. 

 As regards these birds, however, that year was an exceptional one. 



