THE SHORE BIRDS. 201 
ing the past thirty years the Rapacious Birds of Great Britain have 
undergone an amount of persecution so determined and systematic 
that many of the species have altogether disappeared; and as by the 
latest records of the meetings of the British Association assembled 
at Norwich, it would appear that even sea-fowl are now in danger 
of extirpation [they are now protected], owing to the extraordinary 
demand for their plumes and feathers for marketable purposes, it may 
not be out of place for the ornithologists of this great continent to 
consider the propriety of protecting, even now, some of the species 
thus proclaiming by their scarcity that the time may not be far dis- 
tant when we, too, may have to lament their loss.” 
The Phalaropes, or “Coot-footed Snipe,” as I have 
heard them called, are represented by three species, 
all occasionally seen, but nowhere abundant, except 
on the sea-coast at intervals. These curious birds 
look like sand-pipers, but do not act like them. They 
are swimmers rather than waders, and when seen at 
a little distance are remarkably duck-like. They 
are all migratory, and in the Middle States and 
New England are seen in spring and autumn, gen- 
erally at the latter season. They appear on our 
inland waters as well as along the coast, and doubt- 
less many a specimen is shot and goes the way of all 
game-birds, the naturalists of the neighborhood not 
suspecting that such a bird was about. I have twice 
seen examples of two of the species on the counter 
of a game dealer in Philadelphia, and I have seen the 
Red Phalarope several times on the Delaware River, 
more than one hundred miles from the ocean. 
The red phalarope breeds in the highest northern 
regions, and is said to have an unusual method of 
conducting the preliminary courtship: the female 
captures a mate, and after the eggs are laid lets him 
