THE LONG-BILLED PHALAROPES. 
201 
Here the captive male is introduced to new duties, and spends 
half his time on the eggs, while the female keeps about *e PooI 
close by. In due time the young are hatched and come torth, 
beautiful little balls of buff and brown. During incubation, if 
the nest is approached, the parent bird usually flies off the eggs 
when the intruder is some yards away, and proceeds to feed 
about the surface or edge of the nearest pool, as though nothing 
unusual had occurred. At times the parent shows a little anxiety, 
and swims restlessly about the pool, uttering a low, sharp, metal- 
lic ^ ■bleep' When a bird leaves the eggs, it is usually joined at 
once by its mate. In one or two instances a parent bird came 
gliding stealthily through the grass to the nest while I was occu- 
pied in packing the eggs in my basket.’ 
Nest. — Messrs. Pearson and Bidwell state that the nests 
which they found in the north of Norway were neatly tirade 
of fine grass, and rather deep in proportion to their width. 
On the Lofodens and in the Porsanger-fjord the species often 
nested quite on the edge of small tarns or peat-holes, m grass 
about sLx inches high ; a few were in marsh ground covered 
with grass of the same height. Mr. Seebohm found the nest 
in the Petchora to be a somewhat slight structure of dried 
stalks generally placed in the middle of a tuft, so that it is not 
unfrequently a foot or more from the ground. In some places, 
where the grass was short, the nest was scarcely more than a 
hollow in the ground, lined with dry grass. 
Eggs. These are easily distinguished frorn those of the Grey 
Phalaropes by their smaller size, and by their somewhat darker 
general tone, the spots being often very large, and forming 
blotches, which cover a great part of the egg. Axis, i'o5-i'25 
inch ; diam, o'75-o'85. 
TITE LONG-BILLED PHALAROPES. GENUS SPEGANOPUS. 
Steganopus, Vieill. N. Diet. d’Hist. Nat. xxxii. p. 136 (1819). 
Type, S. tricolor (Vieill.). 
The Genus Steganopus differs from the other genera of 
Phalaropes in having a longer bill, the web between the outer 
