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stated, in Northern Scotland, in Iceland and Greenland, and throughout the northern portions of 

 the Paleearctie Region, as well as in Arctic America. It breeds in marshy localities, or near the 

 edges of small pools. I have never taken its nest myself, and am indebted to my friend Mr. J. A. 

 Harvie Brown for the following notes: — "The Red-necked Phalarope breeds on the swampy 

 margins of certain shallow lakes in the Long Island. It places its somewhat deeply cup-shaped 

 nest, which is built of grass and a slender species of water-reed, amongst the wrack and flotsam 

 which is either left high and dry by the receding of the water after a long course of dry weather, 

 or thrown up upon the shores during high winds. This wrack forms a belt along the wind- 

 ward side of the lochs, generally removed some six to ten or twelve feet from, but often much 

 nearer to, the water's edge. The nests often appear to be in danger of being swamped or washed 

 away, so close are they to the water ; and I believe it is, indeed, not unfrequently the case that 

 they are so. 



" There seems to be some irregularity in the time of nesting of these lovely little creatures. 

 In the Long Island Captain Feilden and myself procured a nest of eggs as early as the 30th May, 

 in 1870, whilst others, in the same year, were not obtained until the 18th and 21st of June, 

 though numbers were observed at more than one locality between the 1st and 7th of June by 

 Captain Fielden, who remained a week longer than I did for the express purpose of searching for 

 their nests. A female shot by him on 1st June contained a full-sized egg, and had sixty-eight 

 seeds in the ovary. This was, in all probability, the bird of the nest procured on the 30th May, 

 as that nest only contained three eggs, and it was, along with the male, shot close to the place. 



" In some years the Red-necked Phalarope is not nearly so abundant at its breeding-haunts 

 in the Long Island as in other years. They arrive at their breeding-stations during the last week 

 in May ; and, as Mr. P. Gray informs us, the nests are usually found in the first week in June. 

 The nest mentioned above may therefore perhaps be considered an exceptionally early one. 



" The Ped-necked Phalarope exhibits little fear of man, and is perhaps the tamest of all 

 our wild birds. It is utterly unsuspicious of wrong-doing on the part of the intruder on its 

 domain, and exhibits a trusting simplicity of deportment (if I may so call it) seldom seen even in 

 domestic fowls. The Dotterel {Charadrius morinellus) earned its name from the apparent fool- 

 ishness or stupidity of its behaviour and tameness near the nest ; but the Dotterel, though tame, 

 is an eminently suspicious and cunning bird, whereas the present species is thoroughly unsus- 

 picious, and with its loveliness might almost be taken as a perfect type of purity and peace. It 

 will sit on a stone in the water preening its feathers, or float lightly on the surface of the loch 

 and scarcely lift its head on the approach of an intruder. 



" With regard to the statements regarding the breeding of this species in Sutherlandshire, 

 I think they are hardly sufficiently authentic to be worthy of the attention of naturalists. 

 Although St. John watched a pair of these birds floating on the surface of a marshy loch (in 

 that county), and running on the broad floating leaves of some water-plant, on the 10th June, 

 1848, I am of the opinion that they were only resting during their migration to Shetland, where 

 at that time they bred in some numbers. I have failed to hear of any other specimen obtained 

 in Sutherland (to the ornithology of which county I have for some years devoted a considerable 

 amount of attention) ; nor have I received any authentic account, from any part of the county, 

 of its ever having been found breeding." 



