607 



on the back margined with brownish yellow, whereas in Ph. hyperboreus these margins are rusty 

 yellow. 



This, a more boreal species than its near ally Phalaropits hyperboreus, is, like that bird, found in 

 the north of both the Paleearctic and Nearctic Regions, only occurring in the central districts 

 during the winter season or when on migration. 



It visits the shores of England more frequently during migration than the Red-necked 

 Phalarope, and in larger numbers ; but its visits are irregular. The largest migration on record 

 of latter years took place in 1866, between the 20th August and the 8th October. Mr. J. H. 

 Gumey, jun., carefully collected all the information which he could obtain respecting the various 

 specimens obtained during that autumn, and published a small pamphlet in which he enumerates 

 several hundred occurrences in Sussex, Hants, Devon, Dorset, Cornwall, Somerset, Kent, Cum- 

 berland, Surrey, Yorkshire, Suffolk, Cheshire, Middlesex, Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, 

 Essex, Oxfordshire, Radnorshire, Gloucestershire, and Pembrokeshire, the largest number (250) 

 having been obtained in Sussex. Mr. Cecil Smith, writing from Somerset, says that " it is there 

 an irregular visitant. In some years considerable numbers make their appearance in different 

 parts of the county ; their visits are by no means confined to the coast or even to the neighbour- 

 hood of water, but they seem to drop down occasionally in any part of the county. Some time 

 ago I had an opportunity of watching one for a long time on Northam Burrows, in North Devon ; 

 it was close to a large pond, but did not appear to care much whether it was on the water or 

 the land ; on the land it was more active than I expected, running about much after the manner 

 of a summer Snipe ; on the water it swam very light, almost more so than a Gull." Speaking 

 of its occurrence in Scotland, Mr. Robert Gray writes (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 327), " in its summer 

 plumage the Grey Phalarope is totally unknown in Western Scotland, all the specimens that 

 have occurred being in the plain garb of winter. Even at that season the species is of rare 

 occurrence, single specimens only being met with. I have seen examples from Dunstaffnage 

 Bay, near Oban, the banks of Loch Fyne, and the Frith of Clyde ; one was obtained as far up 

 the estuary as Port Glasgow in the winter of 1866. I have also examined specimens from the 

 shores of Loch Etive and the coast near Helensburgh, where they were shot in December 1868. 

 On the east coast of Scotland it is much oftener seen, and appears to visit all the shores from 

 Berwick to Orkney, sometimes arriving in small flocks, but generally in scattered groups. It 

 has been frequently shot in East Lothian on the banks of the Tyne estuary, and also in Berwick- 

 shire at the mouth of the Tweed, as I have been obligingly informed by the Earl of Haddington. 

 I watched a pair of Grey Phalaropes sitting in a shallow pool among the rocks near Dunbar, in 

 February 1864 ; they allowed me to approach within a few feet of the water, and I could almost 

 have touched them with an ordinary cane. On putting them up, they both flew to a little 

 distance, and alighted in another rock-encircled pool, where the depth of water obliged them to 

 swim, which they did with extreme grace. After seeing them picking off some of the smaller 

 marine animals which they found adhering to the seaweed on the sides of the rocks I again 

 disturbed them, after which they took out to sea, and were soon lost to sight." It occasionally 

 visits Ireland during migration, more especially late in the autumn. 



In Greenland it is common; and I have received through Messrs. Erichsen and Theobald, 

 of Copenhagen, a series of its eggs obtained by their collectors at Egedesminde, in North 



