Fluoros are saturated-vapor style, so the pressure is controlled by the coldest-spot temperature. So the extra mercury will not evaporate and work only as a reserve (so this lamp most likely do not end as mercury depleted... :-)). I've seen this often on newer lamps, but the ball disappeared after some hours burned... But it might be, then there was not enough binding component in the amalgam mix, so that's why the mercury form such ball (instead of resting in the designed amalgam reservoir). Or the lamp was operated in some CFL-unfriendly luminaire (what a surprise
![Tongue :P](/Smileys/default/tongue.gif)
), so the coldest spot formed somewhere else then designed, so the mercury was distilled out of it's original resting place