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PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS.
Grey Phalarope.

Tringa fulicaria, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i.

—— lobata, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 64.

glacialis, Gmel. edit. Linn, Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 675

Crymophilus rufus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat., tom ;

Phalaropus lobatus et glacialis, Lath. Ind. Orn. :

we griseus, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indig.
platyrhynchos, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 1st edit, p. 459

Sulicarius, Bonap. Geogr. and Comp. List of Birds of Kur

rufescens, Keys, & Blas. Wirbelth. Dicey oe iGe |

rufus, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl., tom. iy.

p: 249,

Vill. p. 521,

» tom. ii. p. 776.

Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 34,

and N. Amer., p. 54,

p- 381.

TSE

Tue accompanying Plate will give that por

tion of my re
this Phalarope a better idea of the bird th

aders who may not be intimately acquainted with
an the most minute verbal description. It has obtained its trivial
ance of its being most commonly in its light winter dress when seen in this
country, a costume widely different from that of spring and summer, represented on the annexed illustration.
That the bird should be subject to so great a transformation is indeed astonishing

name of Grey from the circumst

; but so it is, and, this
appropriate to call it the Red as the Grey Phalarope ; a trivial
name, however, which has become universal cannot well be altered
plumage ought to be indicated in its common de

being the case, it would have been quite as

, or surely the summer or finest state of
signation rather than the grey and unattractive one of winter.
resting species, I commence its history by asking, Of what

‘e all the information I have been able to collect respecting
its habits and economy. Its true domicile is clearly not the British Islands

or breed to the southward of the arctic circle, except on rare occasions.

After these remarks on the name of this inte
country is it a native ? and shall proceed to giy

; neither does it pass the summer

Is it not, then, a native of that
portion of our globe which has hitherto defied the energies of civilized man to penetrate, the extreme
north, within that great belt of congelation of which we have as yet only reached the outer edge, probably
amid open waters studded with islands which afford congenial summer homes to many other birds whose
true breeding-grounds yet remain to be discovered (the Rosy Gull of Ross, the Sanderling, Grey Plover,
&c.)? Whoever may have the good fortune to lift this veil of mystery will, I believe, see the breeding-
country of several of our winter migrants. For if there be not such an asylum for these birds in the high
northern regions, I know not whither they can betake themselves for the performance of the duty of repro-
duction. ‘The Grey Phalarope is said to breed in Iceland and Greenland, and on the North Georgian and
Melville Islands. Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla have also been enumerated as among its breeding-places ;
but all that could be produced in these localities would not be sufficient to form the great number of
individuals that resort to countries further south during the period of winter, or for the vast flights
that every now and then are seen passing over Europe, Asia, and America. To England its visits are
uncertam, and when it does come it is generally in small numbers; but Iam prepared to show that vast
flights of: these fairy-like birds do now and then arrive. Fairy-like, indeed, ame ites little ee for oS
delicate white and grey colouring of their feathers, the tameness of their disposition, their elegant mode of
flight, and chaff-like buoyancy as they topple on the waters like a reversed Heater from a Swan’s breast,
justifies such a comparison. The extreme tameness they display 7 alone sufficient o tell us that ue have
come from a country where man, not being a denizen, bas neither impressed them eat fear, nor disturbed
them in their breeding-quarters. They seem to have arrived from some blissful elysium where peace a
quietude reign, and now for the first time to meet with their greatest enemy and certain oe ie
Gatcombe informs me that a few Grey Phalaropes visit the coast of Devonshire almost every year, anc may
be found, if looked for, during the autumnal equinoxes, swimming in an ee aa ee ce
the patches of foam and weed collected just outside the breakers, nimbly searching fo1 a : a
heads, and wheeling about like feathers on the water. At such times they are exceedingly cae ae

fe : ; : a li ine in the air, and then resume their feeding
man, and, if shot at and missed, will often give only a little es a ae +) canes conn
as if nothing had happened. Some years ago an immense flight of ee ae oe on t é
Devon and Cornwall, filling the bays and ue Ua aoe el sa inland ponds and all kinds of
about the grass on the low cliffs like Sandpipers. A few ee ar ‘the entrance tof the Gatwatenml
strange places. So numerous were they in Plymouth Sound, oe kets full; upon asking what he
saw a man shooting them with an old rusty musket, and cramming his pock i 2

ere seen in flocks running