SCOLOPACID^. 



475 



does not appear that tliey have ever been seen to dive, 

 either while feeding or when endeavouring to escape 

 from threatened danger. They fly with great strengtli 

 and swiftness, and when on the wing are not easily dis- 

 tinguished from the Tringas, although wlien on land they 

 are inferior to them in lightness and agility. The lobed 

 feet of the Phalaropes give them, however, a great advan- 

 tage in enabling them to walk on the soft and oozy mud 

 which covers the sides of creeks and estuaries, among 

 which they find their principal food, consisting of insects, 

 worms, and minute mollusca. Their most remarkable 

 habit seems to be that of alighting at sea on beds of 

 Hoating sea- weed, upon which they run with light and 

 nimble pace, after the manner of a Wagtail : they are 

 often met with thus employed a hundred miles from land. 

 The Phalarope builds a nest of grass in the marshes, or 

 on the islands of inland lakes, and lays four eggs, of a dark 

 olive-colour closely spotted with black. 

 The length of this species is seven inches. 



