appear to be much more frequent on the eastern and
southern coasts than elsewhere, but there are few
English counties in which stragglers have not been
occasionally found.
Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has recorded the slaughter of
five hundred Grey Phalaropes between A.ugust 20th and
October 8th, 1866; of these about half were obtained
in the county of Sussex. The year 1886 was also
remarkable for the numbers of this species that visited
our southern coasts; fourteen were brought from the
neighbourhood of Christchurch, Hants, to Mr. Ed. Hart,
the well-known taxidermist, in October and November
of that year, and a very great number recorded from
other places. The singular tameness of these pretty
birds has been noticed by almost every author who has
personally become acquainted with them, and is fully
verified by my very limited experience, as above-
mentioned. The attitude of the bird, seen by us
at sea, reminded me much of a Teal, with the head and
neck drawn closely in and slightly thrown back. The
breeding-haunts of the Grey Phalarope are the circumpolar
regions; the eggs, four in number, are of a
greenish yellow, thickly spotted with dark brown, and
are said to be laid in June in slight depressions in grass
or on shingle, with very little, if any, nest. In this
family of birds the females are larger and more brilliantly
coloured than the males, and the contrast between
the bright colours of the summer-plumage and the sober
grey and white of winter is peculiarly striking.