THE BLACK-WINGED STILT 



tadpoles from the surface of the water, or catches winged insects as they hover near. 

 When disturbed at their breeding grounds, the birds fly around overhead, making 

 a great outcry. 



The fully adult birds of both sexes have the head and neck pure white, though 

 the younger males are found breeding before they lose the black nape and hind 

 neck of immaturity. 



THE GREY PHALAROPE. 



Phalaropus fulicarius (Linnaeus). 

 Plate 64. 



Chiefly visiting the south-western coast of England in autumn and very rarely 

 in winter and spring, this circumpolar bird, best known to us in its grey winter 

 plumage, occurs here and there at irregular intervals, though at times, as in the 

 visitations of 1866, 1869, 1886, and 1891, in much larger numbers, so that, accord- 

 ing to Mr. J. H. Gurney, over four hundred were accounted for in the first- 

 mentioned year. 



The Grey Phalarope nests sparingly in Iceland, which appears to be its most 

 southerly breeding range, and more plentifully in Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, 

 and through the Arctic regions of Northern Asia and America, as well as in Green- 

 land. In winter the migrations of this species extend far and wide over the Old 

 and New Worlds, when it visits the shores of Southern Europe, North Africa, 

 China, Japan, South America, and even New Zealand. 



The nest, placed on the ground among withered grass or moss, and often 

 situate'd in wet places, usually contains four eggs, pale buffish-olive in ground 

 colour, and thickly spotted and blotched with dark brown. 



Miss Maud D. Haviland, describing the habits of this bird on the Yenesei, 

 Siberia (Witherby's British Birds, vol. ix. p. 12), says, "I found the first nest on 

 Golchika Island early in July. My attention was called to it by the male bird, 

 which flew round uneasily. Even when the nesting-ground is invaded, this 

 Phalarope is very quiet and not very demonstrative. He flits round the intruder 

 with a peculiar silent flight, rather like a big red moth, while he utters his chirrup- 

 ing alarm note — zhit zhit. This call is shriller than that of Phalaropus lobatus, 

 and quite recognisable when the two species breed side by side." 



Like the Red-necked Phalarope, the male in the present species is smaller and 

 duller in colour than the female, is courted by her, and carries out the duties of 



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