608 



Greenland. In Iceland, Professor Newton writes (Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas, p. 411), " this 

 bird has been but seldom observed by strangers in Iceland ; yet in 1858 I found that it was very 

 well known to the natives of the district where Faber had seen it in 1821. On the 21st June 

 in that year he obtained a pair which were swimming in a flock of the commoner species ; the 

 female contained largely developed eggs. On the following day he found a single pair at their 

 breeding-place in the neighbourhood of the same locality, and searched in vain for their nest. 

 Finally, on the 9th July, he met with a family party some miles to the eastward. In 1858 I 

 discovered two pairs on a lake in the same district ; but a few days afterwards they disappeared, 

 and they certainly did not remain to breed there that year. Last summer a friend of mine sent 

 me four eggs, which had been taken under his special superintendence." 



It is found in Spitzbergen ; and Professor Malmgren writes (J. f. O. 1863, p. 372) that it is 

 not rare on the coast, including the north-eastern coast. He saw the first at Treurenberg Bay, 

 near Hecla Cove, about the middle of June ; a few days later on one was killed near Verlegen 

 Hook. Late in July he saw a flock on the Depotholm, in 80° N. lat., running about the edge of 

 a freshwater marsh ; and a few days previously he saw a similar one on an island in 80° 10' 

 N. lat., but he did not succeed in finding a nest. Professor Newton also writes (Ibis, 1865, 

 p. 505), " although met with in various localities, from the extreme south to the extreme north, 

 and doubtless breeding in many places, the exact spots selected by this beautiful species are 

 still unknown to me. Dr. Malmgren was as unsuccessful in his first voyage as Ludwig and I 

 were. Last year the skipper of the Swedish exploring-vessel found a nest with four eggs up 

 the North Fjord of the Sound at the beginning of July. The contents he put in his cap ; but 

 as he was stalking deer at the time, he forgot the treasures he was carrying, and the consequence 

 was that they were all smashed. Later in the month Professor Duner found a nest with three 

 fresh eggs in Bell Sound. They lay on the ground, which consisted of small splinters of stone, 

 without any bedding. They are now at Stockholm. Neither of the parent birds was observed 

 by the nest." Dr. Th. von Heuglin says (J. f. O. 1872, p. 120) that it is doubtless met with in 

 Novaja Zemlia and Waigatch ; but he does not appear to have obtained specimens. In Scandi- 

 navia it is rare ; and Mr. Collett writes that " it visits the coasts of Norway but sparingly during 

 migration and in the winter season, never remaining there to breed ; but it has been observed in 

 East Finmark in summer plumage at the end of August, and in winter dress in October. Like 

 the Red-necked Phalarope this species winters in the southern fjords. In the month of 

 December 1864 a pair were shot among the islands in the Bay of Christiania; and several other 

 specimens in winter dress, from Norway, are preserved in the University Museum." Nilsson 

 (Skand. Fauna, ii. p. 295) speaks of it as one of the rarest of the Scandinavian birds, and says 

 that it is a rare visitant to the northern portions of Sweden. In Finland it has, according to 

 Dr. Palmen (Finl. Fogl. p. 185), only once been obtained, a specimen having been shot at Esbo, 

 in Southern Finland, in November 1851. It is not recorded from Northern Russia by Meves; 

 nor did Messrs. Alston and Harvie-Brown meet with it in the Archangel Government; but 

 Mr. Sabanaeff informs me that it has to his knowledge been once met with on the river 

 Sheksna, in Northern Russia, in the month of May. Like the Red-necked Phalarope it visits 

 North Germany during the late autumn and winter; and, according to Borggreve (J. f. O. 1871, 

 p. 222), it appears to be commoner than that species ; and Baron von Droste Hiilshoff informed 



