HYPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. 373 



Boston Bay and on Long. Island, it breeds regularly at Hudson's Bay ; 

 arriving there annually in the beginning of June. In the middle of 

 this month they lay three or four eggs on a dry spot among the grass : 

 the nest is placed on a small hillock near a pond, and contains four 

 very small pyriform eggs, resembling those of a Snipe in shape, but 

 much less, and of a deep olive color, blotched with dusky, so thickly as 

 nearly to obscure the ground color. The young fly in August, and 

 they all depart in September for less rigorous climes. In Greenland 

 the species also arrives regularly in April and departs in September. 

 This bird inhabits the Orkney and Shetland Islands, as well as those of 

 the Norwegian sea, in considerable numbers during summer, breeding 

 there. It is very common in the marshes of Sanda and Westra, but 

 especially Landa and North Ronaldsha, the two most northerly of the 

 Orkney Isles, in the breeding season, but leaves them in autumn for 

 milder regions. Its favorite abode is the shores of lakes situated within 

 the Arctic circle : it is plentiful in the northern parts of Sweden, 

 Russia, and Norway, as well as the northern coasts of Siberia, and 

 between Asia and America, extending its irregular wanderings even to 

 the Caspian Sea. In Iceland it is observed to come about the middle 

 of May, and remain in flocks at sea ten miles from the shore, retiring 

 early in June to mountain ponds : remarkably faithful to each other, 

 both sexes are quarrelsome with strangers, and the males are very 

 pugnacious, fighting together running to and fro on the surface of the 

 water while the females are sitting. The species passes regularly along 

 the north coasts of Scotland and the continental coasts of the Baltic 

 Sea. It appears also, though rarely, during spring and autumn in the 

 southern Scandinavian provinces. In England it is very rare, and 

 quite as accidental as in the United States, though it has been casually 

 observed in Germany, France, and even on the great lakes of Switzer- 

 land : an individual was killed on the Lake of Geneva in August, 1806, 

 the only one ever seen on that lake, where the flat-billed Phalarape is 

 by no means so excessively rare : the specimen alluded to was killed 

 while swimming and picking up small diptera from the surface of the 

 water. These wanderers are always young birds ; but never within my 

 knowledge has an individual been known to stray into any part of Italy. 

 The favorite food of this species is water insects, especially diptera, 

 that abound at the mouths of rivers. The old ones hover round their 

 young when exposed to any imminent danger, repeating prip, prip, and 

 at the commencement of August carry them out to sea, at the end of 

 that month being no longer to be found inland. The Greenlanders kill 

 them with their arrows, and eat the flesh, which being oily, suits their 

 taste : they also keep the very soft skin, making use of it to rub their 

 eyes with, and thinking it efficacious in curing a species, of ophthalmia 

 to which they are subject. 



