Gray Phalarope. 449 



three thousand together, and many thousands may be met with 

 on some of the Norfolk broads. As regards the flesh of this 

 bird, my own taste obliges me to say that it is most unpalatable 

 and fishy in the extreme indeed, the fact that it is allowed by 

 the Komish Church to be eaten on jours maigres, as are some 

 other birds which partake of the same fish-like flavour, condemns 

 it at once in my judgment as affording the reverse of delicate 

 meat. Its generic name, fulica, is from the Greek $a\aicpo<s, 

 meaning ' bald-headed,' whence also the French Foulque; but in 

 Germany it is the Schwarzes Wasserhuhn ; and in Sweden the 

 Sot Hona, or ' Soot Hen/ Harting observes that it may always 

 be known from a Moorhen on the water by its attitude. The 

 Coot swims with head and tail very low and the head poked 

 forward, but the Moorhen with head erect and tail jerked up 

 almost at right angles to the back. The Moorhen's white tail, 

 or rather under-tail coverts, also serve to distinguish it, the 

 same parts in the Coot being black.* In Spain it is Mancon 

 and Focha ; in Portugal, Galeirdo. The English word ' Coot ' is 

 probably of Celtic origin, from civta, 'short,' 'docked,' 'bob- 

 tailed.' 



173. GRAY PHALAROPE (Phalaropus hiatus). 



This pretty little bird belongs rather to the ocean than the 

 land, and its home is in Northern Asia, Siberia, and Northern 

 America, where it breeds in the most desolate regions within the 

 Arctic Circle, amidst the ice and snow and piercing cold of the 

 extreme North. On Parry's Arctic voyages it was found in very 

 high northern latitudes, in summer swimming unconcernedly 

 amongst the icebergs ; and Major Feilden observed it in July 

 breeding in latitude 82 30' N., so that when it visits us in 

 Wiltshire it is as an accidental straggler indeed, and yet I have 

 many records of its occurrence here. The specimen from which 

 Colonel Montagu took his description, and which was in his own 

 museum, was taken at a pond at Alderton.f Yarrell reports 



* { Birds of Middlesex, 3 p. 212. 



f ' Ornithological Dictionary ' in loco. 



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