OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 185 



Allied forms. — Phalaropus fuUcarius, already treated of in the preceding 

 chapter, and P. wilsoni also mentioned in the allies of that species (see p. 181). 



Habits.— Although the migrations of the Eed-necked Phalarope are not 

 very extended in the western Palsearctic region, they are much more so in other 

 parts of the world, as may be gathered from the remarks on the geographical 

 distribution of this bird. It is a bird of the sea, and though it does not appear to 

 wander so far from shore as the Grey Phalarope, it does not visit the land much 

 except during the breeding season. It is a tame and confiding little bird, as 

 I have often remarked, especially when on the pools and lakes where it nests ; 

 and at all times it is extremely social. Parties of Eed-necked Phalaropes may 

 be seen all the summer through swimming in company. This bird swims 

 remarkably well and buoyantly, scarcely raising a ripple, nodding its head as 

 it progresses, usually in a zigzag direction, across the pool, and picking insects 

 from the water, or snapping at them as they flit by as it goes. It also runs 

 daintily about the swampy margins of the water, and I have seen it walk lightly 

 over floating masses of weed. The Eed-necked Phalarope spends most of its 

 time on the water, rarely taking wing, although it can fly both rapidly and well. 

 The note of this species is a rather low but shrill weet. Its food consists largely 

 of insects and their larvae ; but worms, crustaceans, and other small marine 

 animals are also eaten. 



Nidification. — The breeding season of this species commences in May 

 in Scotland, but in more Arctic latitudes it is several weeks later. Its breeding 

 grounds are returned to each season. These are usually situated on marshy 

 moors, generally in the neighbourhood of pools and not far from the sea. In 

 the valley of the Petchora, Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown found the nest 

 amongst long grass in the centre of a thick tuft a foot or more from the ground ; 

 but in Scotland it is usually made on the ground. This nest is sometimes very 

 slight — merely a hollow lined with a few bits of dry grass and rush ; but at other 

 times more substantial and neatly made. The eggs are four in number, buff of 

 various shades or pale olive in ground-colour, blotched and spotted with umber- 

 brown, blackish-brown and pale brown, and underlying markings of grey. They 

 measure on an average I'linch in length by "82 inch in breadth. The male, as 

 in the preceding species, performs the duties of incubation, and takes the greatest 

 share in bringing up the brood : the female (the most brilliantly-coloured) taking 

 the initiative in the courtship, and, as Mr. Nelson remarks, possessing " all the 

 rights demanded by the most radical reformers." Messrs. Pearson and Bidwell 

 have recorded {Ibis, 1894, p. 234) some remarkable facts respecting the breeding 

 habits of this Phalarope. They say: "In most instances where we saw this 

 species there were three birds — two males and one female. Twice we saw parties 

 of three birds each on the sea, feeding just behind the breakers ; repeatedly we 



