440 



G O D W I T. Clas3II. 



a piece. A ftale of the fame fpecies is placed in 

 the net. They appear in fmall flocks on our coaft 

 in September^ and continue with us the whole win- 

 ter ; they walk on the open fands like the curlew ; 

 and feed on infects. 



M. Briffon has figured this bird very accurately, 

 but has given it the fynonym of our green/hanks. 

 Turner fufpects this bird to have been the attagen 

 or at t ages of the antients. Arijiophanes names it 

 in an addrefs to the birds that inhabit the fens ; 

 therefore fome commentators conclude it to be a 

 water- fowl; though in a line or two after he fpeaks 

 of thofe that frequent the beautiful meadows of 

 Marathon. He then defcribes the bird in very 

 finking terms, under the title of the attagas, the 

 lira 1 with painted wings % and in another place he 

 ftyles it the /potted attagas *. This alone would 

 be inefficient to prove what fpecies the poet intend- 

 ed; we mud therefore have recourfe to Athenaus^ 

 who is particular in his defcription of the attagas, 

 and evinces it to be of the partridge tribe. 



He fays it is lefs than that bird ; that the back 

 is fpotted with different colors, fome of a pot co- 

 lor, but more red ; that by reafon of the fhortnefs 

 of the wings and heavinefs of the body, it is taken 



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array at. 



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Av. 249. 762. 



eafily 



