T his pretty species, remarkable for the great difference..of
its red appearance when in the plumage of summer,, compared
to its delicate grey colour in winter, and" from which latter
prevailing tint it dérives its haine, received an" early notice
from our countryman and naturalist George Edwards, who
figured this bird in its winter plumage in his plate, No. 808,
from a specimen killed in Yorkshire, in January 1757, and
another in its summer plumage, plate 142, from a specimen
received from Hudson’s Bay. Edwards, in his Gleanings in
Natural History, called them Coot-footed, from the dilated
and lobed membranes of the toes, resembling in' structure the
same part in the .Coot ; and in Papa Westra, according to
Dr. Neill, in his Tour through Orkney, the Phalaropes are
called Half-webs.
Such decided swimmers are these "Phalaropes; that Major
Sabine, in his Memoir on the Birds of-Greenland,' merlons5
having shot one out of a flock of four, on the ’West coast _of
Greenland in latitude 68°, while they were swimming in the
sea amongst icebergs, three or four miles from the shore;
and Dr. Richardson, in his Natural History, Appendix to Sir
Edward Parry’s Second Arctic Ynyage, says, they were observed
upon the sea, out of sight of land; ■preferring to swim
out of danger rather than take wing. Their under plumage
is also thick and compact, and the bones of the legs flattened
like those of the true swimming birds.
Though: formerly a rare bird in this country, since Pennant
says that he only knew of two instances in which it had occurred
in his time, they are now more common, and generally
appear in the autumn, when on their way to their southern
winter quarters. They are also; for the most part, young
birds of the year, in,various stages of change towards the pure
and delicate grey-colour of the plumage of winter. Some
years since, A. B. Lambert, Esq. presented to the Zoological
Society a beautifully marked adult bird; this was killed in
Wiltshire in the month of August, and retained at that time
a great portion of: the true red colours of the breeding-season,
or summer; plumage ; and I have:occasionally seen specimens
obtained'in December and January, and then exhibiting, of
course,,the perfect grey plumage öf winter.
, They feed on the smaller thin-skinned Crustacea and aquatic
insects, which they and pick-up from the surface of
the waiter While Swimming ; and their attitude: resembles that
of the Teal a, with the head drawn backwards. A specimen in
my own Collection, killed in November 1824, while swimming
- on the Thames near Battersea, was seen there by a
gardenér,-Who went home,-a d is ta n t o f .a mile and a half,
to fetch his gun, and on his return found the bird still swimming
and feeding hear the sameispotW.
This species breeds in Iceland, Greenland, on the North
Georgian and Melville Islands. • : The eggs are usually four
in number^lof a stone.-colour tinged with olivet; spotted and
speckled over with dark brown ; measuring oue iiich two lines
indength, by ten lines and a half in breadth. The egg here
described, which is in my own collection, and-is figured in
Mr. Hewitson’s work, was brought from Melville Island, and
also the female bird in summer plumage, from which the
figure in the back-ground of the illustration was drawn and
engraved. :
This species has now been obtained in so many different
counties in England, as to render the particular enumeration
of them unnecessary ; in some instances they were found to
be so tame as to allow of very close approach, and in one instance
that came 'to my own knowledge, the bird was struck
down by a labouring man with a spade. The Grey Phala-
rppe has also been killed .in Ireland and in Scotland. In
Denmark, Sweden, add Norway it is observed in spring and
autumn, when on its passage to and from its breeding stations
in higher northern latitudes. I t visits Iceland and Greenland,