244 SHORTER-BILLED RUNNING BIRDS. 



RED-NEOKED PHALAROPE.^Plate 105. Length, 



7i inches. Female : upper surface from brow to tail 

 blackish-gray, with huffish streaks at the sides of the 

 back, and white margins to the feathers from the 

 lower back to the base of the tail ; wings dark, with 

 white cross - bar ; chin white ; bright - chestnut band 

 on throat ; ash-gray chest ; remaining under parts 

 white ; bill thin, rather long, tapering to a point, 

 black ; legs and feet greenish. Male : smaller and 

 duller. Summer migrant 



Eggs.— 4, pale greenish-buff, spotted and heavily 

 blotched with dark brown ; 1'15 ^ '82 inch (plate 134). 



Nest. — Merely a depression among grass or heather. 



The Ked-Necked Phalarope breeds in small numbers 

 in the Orkneys and the Shetlands, as well as in 

 the Outer Hebrides, but is more widely known in 

 England and Scotland as a bird of passage, chiefly 

 in autumn. Its feet are lobed like those of a Coot, 

 and the bird may be met in flocks on the sea or 

 upon some lake or pool, swimming with ceaseless 

 tackings and with head drawn back like a tiny Gull, 

 snapping to right and left as it takes a floating 

 morsel of food from the surface, or dipping head and 

 bill to bring up some small crustacean. Nevertheless, 

 Phalaropes are quite at home on the land, running 

 about to collect food on the margins of the waters 

 they haunt. The nest is formed in the herbage 

 near to water, be it sea, lake, or pool, the male 

 bird incubating the eggs. When disturbed the bird 

 utters a sharp ' Pleep ! ' and is joined by the female, 

 unless my lady has gone to air her finer feathers 

 with other gadabouts on some distant pool. If 



