Its visits to this country are almost always in autumn, when it is in the grey plumage, which is grey on the back and white beneath, with a white forehead and a black streak running backwards through the eye. Bill black. The sexes are alike and the young similar but buffish on the chest. A few solitary examples are sometimes seen in nuptial dress during the spring or very early autumn. In this plumage the head and back are black, with rufous margins to the feathers; cheeks white; under parts chestnut. Bill yellow. The male is rather duller in plumage than the female. Length 8·25 in.; wing 4·9 in. [Illustration: GREY PHALAROPE _Phalaropus fulicarius_ (left) RED-NECKED PHALAROPE _Phalaropus hyperboreus_ (right) Both in winter] THE RED-NECKED PHALAROPE Phalaropus hyperboreus (Linnæus) The Phalaropes are delightful little birds of very aquatic habits, and form a splendid instance of how similar environment tends to the production of similar structure. They may be easily recognised from other limicoline or wading birds by their very close feathering, especially on the breast, and their lobed feet, while in the Grey Phalarope, especially, the bill is somewhat flattened, so that in these birds we find a tendency towards the flattened bill as in Ducks, lobed feet as in the Grebes, and the peculiar thick feathers on the breast characteristic of Petrels and Gulls. The Phalaropes have also another peculiarity unique among British birds, although shared by several other groups in different parts of the world, namely that the duties of incubation and rearing of the young are conducted entirely by the male bird, and in correlation with this habit the female does all the courting and is brighter in plumage. One or two spots in Scotland and Ireland are the only remaining places in our islands where this delightful bird may be found nesting, and as an autumn and winter visitor it is decidedly rarer than the preceding species, and very seldom found inland during the winter months. When visiting us it will usually be seen swimming in some sheltered tidal pool or in one of the ditches of the marsh, close to the sea-wall. Its food consists of small insects and crustacea. At its breeding haunts it is extremely tame, running about within a few feet of the intruder. Its summer home is usually on some inland bog, and the nest is placed on a small tussock in a very wet place, often entirely surrounded by water. The eggs are four in number, very pyriform in shape, and large for the size of the bird, but owing to the nest being a deep cup, the surface of the eggs that has to be actually covered by the bird is comparatively small.