242 LOBE-FOOTED BIRDS. 



The food of this species is said to be chiefly worms, 

 winged insects, particularly diptera, and such other kinds 

 as frequent the surface of the water. In specimens, which 

 I have examined, the stomachs contained some small gravel, 

 and the remains of aquatic coleopterous insects, as the differ- 

 ent kinds of small water beetles. These individuals, which 

 were young birds beginning to moult, had therefore varied 

 their fare, by a visit to some fresh-water pool, or lake, and, 

 like their kindred Sandpipers, had landed on the shore in 

 quest of gravel. They were likewise fat, and very finely 

 flavored. The old birds, hunted as food by the Green- 

 landers, are said, however, to be oily and unpalatable, which 

 may arise probably from the nature of the fare on which 

 they there subsist ; if the birds alluded to, are not, in fact, 

 the small Petrels, instead of Phalaropes; though their 

 using the skins medicinally, to wipe their rheumy and dis- 

 eased eyes, seems to decide pretty nearly in favor of the 

 present bird. In the spring of 1832, about the beginning 

 of May, so dense a flock were seen, on the margin of Chel- 

 sea Beach, in this vicinity, that 9 or 10 were killed out of 

 it at a single shot : these were nearly all old birds, and on 

 being eaten, proved quite palatable. 



Mr. Audubon informs me, that in the month of May last, 

 (1833,) he met with flocks of these Phalaropes, about four 

 miles out at sea, off* the Magdalen Islands, where they are 

 known to the fishermen by the name of ' Sea Geese,^ appear- 

 ing more or less every year. At this time, they were in 

 very dense flocks of about 100 together, so close as nearly, 

 or wholly to touch each other. On being approached they 

 were very shy and wild, and as they rose to fly, in the man- 

 ner of the Sandpipers, uttered a faint clear cry of Hioee 

 'tweet. Like Tringas too, they alight on the shore or the 

 ground, and run with agility. They also, at times, settle on 

 the drift weed and I^'uci, in order to glean up any insects 



