THE PHALAROPE AND LOBEFOOT. 
130 
venience have placed it last, 
■with the Snipes. 
By some authors it is classed 
The Grey Phalarope (Tringa^ or Phalaropus lohatus), 
sometimes called the Red Phalarope, or Coot-foot. 
The Red-necked Lobefoot {Tringa^ or Lohipes hyper- 
horeus), variously called the Red, Brown, or Hyperborean 
Phalarope. 
These two birds are the only British members of the 
restricted family Phalaropus, By some naturalists they 
are placed with the Coots, but they seem to have greater 
affinities with the Sandpipers and Tattlers. They are 
small birds, and more decidedly aquatic in their habits 
than any we have yet described, being often met with 
far out at sea, seeking their food among masses of floating 
seaweed, on which they walk as confidently as on firm 
groimd. They are both rare species with us, the first 
especially so, breeding in high northern latitudes. Ex- 
tremely graceful in their forms and motions, and having 
plumage of black, white, and grey, prettily marked and 
blended, and in summer time enlivened and warmed with 
red and yellow edgings to the feathers. 
British naturalists can tell us but little about the first 
species fi-om actual observation. Audubon has described 
its habits somewhat minutely : of the second, the above- 
named author has also given an account, but this species 
has long been known as an inhabitant of the Orkney 
Islands. Mr. Bullock, in a letter to Montagu, gives this 
account of it as observed by him : — ^ I found the Red 
Phalarope (this bird in its summer plumage) common in 
the marshes of Sanda and Westra in the breeding season, 
but which it leaves in the autumn. This bird is so ex- 
tremely tame that I killed nine without moving out of 
the same spot, being not in the least alarmed at the report 
of the gun. It lays four eggs, of the shape of that of a 
Snipe, but much less, of an olive colour, blotched with 
dusky. It swims with the greatest ease, and when in the 
water, looks like a beautiful miniature duck, carrying its 
head close to its back in the manner of a Teal.' 
