266 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



is not great either for help or harm. They feed on small fish, 

 frogs, occasionally a mouse, tadpoles, worms, grasshoppers, 

 dragon-flies, and various insects. It is conceivable that at a fish- 

 hatchery a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) might be out of 

 place, but in the rest of the state its presence is a distinct gain. 



RAILS, GALLINULES, and COOTS. 



Rallidce. 



The Rails have their main value from an economic standpoint 

 as ornaments to the dinner table ; the diet of wild rice on which 

 the Sora (Porzana Carolina) feeds showing why its flesh stands 

 so much higher in the opinion of epicures than that of the Clap- 

 per and Virginia Rails (Rallus crepitans crepitans and vir- 

 ginianus) which " feed chiefly upon grasshoppers, snails, slugs, 

 crabs, and aquatic insects " (Weed and Dearborn, " Birds in 

 their Relation to Man"). 



The Coot (Fulica americana), which is sometimes tolerably 

 common in fall, feeds upon the same food as the last mentioned 

 Rails, and its flesh is not highly praised. 



SHORE BIRDS. 



Limicolce. 



The Phalaropes (Phalaropodida), Avocets and Stilts 

 (Re curviro stride) , Woodcocks, Snipes, and Sandpipers (Scolo- 

 pacidcz), Plovers (Charadriidce), and Turnstones (Aphrizida) 

 were supposed to have their chief economic value as being 

 "good to eat," and in addition furnishing sport and outdoor 

 exercise for sportsmen. But this is by no means true. They 

 are all insect-eaters, and no doubt destroy large numbers 

 during the months they are with us. The Woodcock and Snipe 

 feed on worms, grasshoppers, and other insects. Of the Wilson's 

 Snipe (Gallinago delicata)—" eight out of the eleven stomachs 

 opened by Professor Aughey contained from 38 to 60 locusts each, 

 besides other insects" (Weed and Dearborn, " Birds in their 

 Relation to Man," p. 231). The smaller Sandpipers, feeding 

 about the pools of the salt marshes, probably have some effect 

 on the hordes of mosquitoes by devouring their larvae. Of the 

 usefulness of some species in the West — most of them, alas! 



