THE GREY PHALAROPE. 
339 
be two of these birds ; one swimming in a little pool of water 
near the shore^ and the other wading at the edge. On the 18th 
of October^ 1834, a phalarope was shot near Holy wood, Belfast 
Bay, when swimming and dncking,^^ as the shooter expressed 
it : the bird was alone. The Eev. Mr. Carter described one 
as having attracted great attention on a small pond at the 
seat of Sir John Eibton, about the year 1835. It was there 
for some days and permitted a very near approach. Mr. E. Ball 
saw a phalarope about the same year, which had been caught by 
getting entangled in some herring nets spread out to dry. 
Though but a few hours captured it fed from the hands of the 
gentleman into whose possession it came, freely eating many 
fragments of herring. The self-confidence of this bird (as re- 
marked by Mr. Ball) “ in permitting the near approach of man 
is a very curious circumstance. It is known as a general rule 
that the wildest birds become soonest tame, and that the tamest, 
such as the robin and house-sparrow, bear confinement with the 
greatest impatience, yet here we have a bird permitting familiar 
approach and reconciled at once to captivity ^ 
On the 1st of December, 1835, a phalarope was shot at Port- 
marnock, near Dublin. 
On the 30th of January, 1836, a beautiful specimen in the 
highest condition came into my possession just after it was shot at 
the Salt-pans on the borders of Belfast Bay, very near the town. 
The shooter described it as swimming most ra|)idly, and as 
flying like a tern or sea- swallow : its agility in getting out of the 
little pools of water left by the retiring tide to feed upon their 
banks, and rushing back again to float upon their surface, as- 
tonished him — all seemed to be but the effort of an instant. Seve- 
ral seeds, and a specimen of the univalve shell Rissoa lahiosa, were 
found in its stomach. In the month of September 1836, one of 
these birds was seen (by Mr. E. Ball and Dr. Parran) sportively 
playing at the edge of the water, near Malahide, on the Dublin 
coast. Close by, on the strand, were a Lestris caiarractes and a 
troop of god wits, all of which admitted of a close approach. 
A phalarope was shot in Dublin Bay soon after Christmas 1837, 
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