354 A SPEING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



fell meadows. It is curious to watch these little 

 birds on a summer evening, in small companies of 

 six or eight, chasing each other over a fell lake, into 

 which they would suddenly drop, and swim over 

 its surface, ducking, diving, flapping their little 

 wings, evidently in high enjoyment. We always 

 used to find the eggs close by the margin of the 

 water ; and, like all the small waders, the female 

 never rises from the eggs until she is nearly trod 

 upon. The difference in length between the two 

 species (nearly two inches), and the different 

 shape of the beak, will at once distinguish the 

 two phalaropes. 



The broad-billed sandpiper (Tringa platy- 

 rhmcha, Tern.; "bred nabbad strandvipa," Sw.) 

 Till within the last few years, this sandpiper 

 appears to have been entirely overlooked in 

 Sweden, but I do not think it is so very rare. 

 Twelve years ago I shot three specimens in 

 August, in the very south of Sweden; since then 

 I have shot them in Wermland, and now I have 

 taken the nest in Lulea Lapland. Of all the sand- 

 pipers, this certainly is the most unobtrusive and 

 shyest in its habits; and its custom of creeping 

 among the grass like a little mouse, causes it 

 to be very seldom seen. When flushed, which is 

 never until you nearly tread upon it, it rises with a 

 faint single call-note, flies for a very little distance, 



