202 GRALL^J. 



is an American species, and, from the accounts, it appears to 

 be a rare bird even in that country. The few specimens that 

 have been seen are not sufficient for enabling any judgment 

 to be formed respecting its haunts or habits, farther than 

 may be inferred from its agreement in structure with the rest 

 of the order. 



The form of its bill obliges it to seek its food upon soft 

 surfaces, or, at all events, to seek soft food in humid places ; 

 but whether chiefly in the inland marshes or on those nearer 

 the sea, it is of no avail to speculate. 



It is about the same size and shape as the curlew tringa, 

 and as, when seen at a little distance, all the tringas have a 

 considerable resemblance, it may have been mistaken for it, 

 at the time when birds flock. The bird found in September 

 had the following tints in its plumage ; head mottled with 

 brown and buff, upper part blackish brown, with lighter 

 margins. Chin, throat, neck, and upper part of the breast, 

 buff yellow, and all the rest of the under part white, mottled 

 with buff. The mottling with buff on the under part affords 

 a strong presumption, though not an absolute proof, that 

 the specimen in question was a young bird, and its plumage, 

 as is not unfrequently the case with young birds, something 

 intermediate between the summer and winter plumages of 

 the adults. But so little is known respecting them, that it 

 would be unsafe and unfair to hazard any opinion. America 

 is the best place in which to study the habits of these birds, 

 and of all the analogous genera. The marshes to the north- 

 ward of the St. Lawrence and the lakes, offer a pasture for 

 "the Grallae, to which there is nothing equal in any other part 

 of the world ; and as those marshes freeze during winter to 

 a depth which no bill can pierce, even if it had the sweep 

 and power of a pick-axe, the birds must move southward. 

 There is ample room and also ample provision for them in 

 the southern marshes, both along the shores of the Atlantic 



