THE RED-NECKED ITIALAROPE. 
217 
blades of the same, most of which were broad and Hat ; at tlie 
bottom they formed a bed about half an inch in thickness ; from 
the upper surface of this bed to the rim of the nest the height 
was nearly three inches, the width across the inner rim a little 
less than two inches. Very shortly afterwards, a male 
Phalarope rose unexpectedly, and alighted in the water about 
ten yards off. ]\Iarking the spot as closely as possible, I 
floundered through the muddy water, scrambled upon the little 
island, and soon afterwards, to my intense delight, discovered 
a nest and four beautiful eggs, all lying with their small ends 
meeting in the centre. They were hard set, but for all that, 
were a most valuable prize. The nest only differed from the 
last in having a few feathers, apparently from the breast of one 
of the birds, lying loosely inside. After this I quartered about 
for a considerable time, and in the best of good tempers. T 
found some more half-finished nests, and a few deserted ones, 
and finally I discovered yet another nest containing four eggs, 
and another with a single one, all quite fresh. Oddly enough, 
in this part of the swamp I saw but the one bird already men- 
tioned, while in the further part, among the rushes, they were, 
as I have stated, abundant. I can only account for this by 
supposing that they had young ones which they had led away 
for concealment, and that the few birds which had eggs must 
have escaped my notice. 
The fresh eggs found in the second nest are of a pale 
yellowish olive green, spotted all over, but rather more so at 
the broad end, where the marks are also larger, with several 
shades of brownish and purplish grey and deep umber brown. 
All are of a lengthened pyriform shape ; three measure one inch 
two lines in length by ten lines in breadth, but the fourth is 
one line longer and one line narrower. Those of the first set 
are not quite so sharply pointed ; the ground-colour is warmer, 
and the markings are of a redder tinge. They all measure 
one inch three lines by ten lines. 
Th e single egg is of the exact size of those last described, 
but the ground-colour is darker and greener, and some of 
