208 WADING BIRDS. 



preceding species. In summer it dwells and breeds gener- 

 ally within the Arctic Circle in both continents. It penetrates 

 into Greenland, Iceland, and Spitzbergen, is abundant in the 

 north of Scotland, in the Orkneys and Hebrides, is equally 

 prevalent in Lapland, on the northern coasts of Siberia, 

 and between Asia and America, a transient visitor on the 

 shores of the Baltic, and seen only accidentally in Germany 

 and Holland. It sometimes, though very rarely, penetrates in- 

 land as far as the lakes of Switzerland, and in its natal regions 

 visits lakes of fresh as well as salt water. At the period of their 

 migrations, in May and August, these birds betake themselves 

 to the open sea, particularly in autumn, and are then gregarious, 

 assembling in flocks ; at other times they are seen in pairs, 

 and, like the preceding, have a constant habit of dipping the 

 bill into the water, as if in the act of collecting the minute mol- 

 lusca which may be floating in it. They are also often seen on 

 the wing, and are said by Willoughby to utter a shrill, clamorous 

 cry, or twitter, resembling that of the Greater Tern. 



In Arctic America, where this Phalarope resides in the mild 

 season, it is seen to seek out shady pools, in w^hich it swims 

 with peculiar ease and elegance, its attitudes much resembling 

 those of the Common Teal. 



These birds arrive to breed around Hudson Bay about the 

 beginning of June, and old and young are seen to frequent the 

 sea-coast previous to their departure, which takes place often 

 soon after the middle of August, on the i6th or 17th of 

 which they are occasionally killed in difl'erent parts of Massa- 

 chusetts Bay and near Newport in Rhode Island. They like- 

 wise probably pay a transient visit to the coast of New Jersey, 

 as they do also, at times, to Long Island, and finally repair 

 to the mild shores of the Mexican Gulf, being seen in the 

 markets of Mexico and Vera Cruz. Migrating probably by 

 sea and outside of the land, they but rarely visit the coast in 

 any part of the United States. Straggling families of the old 

 and young are met with in the vicinity of Boston nearly every 

 year about the beginning of May and the middle of August, 

 commonly in salt-water pools near the sea, and, as usual, they 



