HYPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. 
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invisible animals of the ocean. They are also much on the wing, 
somewhat like the Gulls and Terns, and their cry resembles that 
of the Greater Tern. 
Although the Hyperborean Phalarope is a very rare visitant in 
the United States, there being a few instances only of its being 
shot in Boston Bay and on Long Island, it breeds regularly at 
Hudson’s Bay; arriving there annually in the beginning of June. 
In the middle of this month they lay three or four eggs on a dry 
spot among the grass : the nest is placed on a small hillock near 
a pond, and contains four very small pyriform eggs, resembling 
those of a Snipe in shape, but much less, and of a deep olive 
colour, blotched with dusky, so thickly as nearly to obscure the 
ground colour. The young fly in August, and they all depart in 
September for less rigorous climes. In Greenland the species 
also arrives regularly in April and departs in September. This 
bird inhabits the Orkney and Shetland islands, as well as those 
of the Norwegian sea, in considerable numbers during summer, 
breeding there. It is very common in the marshes of Sanda and 
Westra, but especially Landa and North Ronaldsha, the two most 
northerly of the Orkney Isles, in the breeding season, but leaves 
them in autumn for milder regions. Its favourite abode is the 
shores of lakes situated within the Arctic circle : it is plentiful in 
the northern parts of Sweden, Russia, and Norway, as well as 
the northern coasts of Siberia, and between Asia and America, 
extending its irregular wanderings even to the Caspian Sea. In 
Iceland it is observed to come about the middle of May, and 
remain in flocks at sea ten miles from the shore, retiring early in 
June to mountain ponds : remarkably faithful to each other, both 
sexes are quarrelsome with strangers, and the males are very 
pugnacious, fighting together running to and fro on the surface 
of the water while the females are sitting. The species passes 
regularly along the north coasts of Scotland and the continental 
