98 WADING BIRDS. 



along in ease and elegance, presents an interesting spectacle, 

 no less beautiful than amusing. Arriving, at length, in their 

 natal regions in the wilds of the north, they soon obey the 

 instinct of their species, and making probably a nest on 

 the ground, lay about 4 eggs, which, according to Mr. 

 Hutchins, are of a light bluish-grey color, marked with 

 black (or dark brown) spots. From the middle of August, 

 to the beginning of September, they arrive in the vicinity of 

 Massachusetts Bay, and other parts of New England, fre- 

 quenting the pastures as well as marshes, and fatten upon 

 grasshoppers and berries, till the time of their departure, 

 about the close of September ; and they wholly disappear 

 from New Jersey, on their way to the south, early in the 

 month of November. Previous to their departure, they 

 again assemble in large flocks, near the sea beach, being 

 constantly gregarious in all their journeys. In an island of 

 the Piscataquay, near Plymouth, (N. Hampshire,) a friend 

 informs me, that they had, in the autumn, been seen together 

 in a dense flock of many thousands, thickly covering several 

 acres of ground with their numbers. 



When much hunted, they become extremely shy and 

 difficult to approach ; yet the same bird, shot at, three 

 or four different times, and recovering when about to be 

 picked up, still, notwithstanding this persecution, con- 

 tinued to feed again in the same spot. These birds, 

 though so exquisite in flavor, in the autumn, when as abund- 

 ant as usual, are sold in Boston market for about twenty to 

 twenty-five cents each. As early as the 18th of July, I 

 have met with individuals of this species, one of which, 

 on dissection, proved to be an old and barren male, who 

 in all probability, had remained behind the flock in the 

 same vicinity where he had arrived in the spring, having no 

 incentive to migration. Whether other specimens, killed at 

 this season, before the return of the general flock, are in- 



