624 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Gralla- 

 tores. 



Good Hope, and has been met with both in the West Indies 

 and South America. When flying in great autumnal flocks, 

 its aerial movements are extremely beautiful, each indivi- 

 dual of the vast assemblage yielding so instantaneously to 

 the same impulsion as to exhibit alternately the upper and 

 the under surface of the body, so that we have for a time 

 a living moving cloud of dusky brown, and then a brilliant 

 flash of snowy whiteness. 



The larger species, called the knot ( T. canutus, Linn.), 

 has also a vast range in a northerly direction. It passes 

 the summer within the arctic circle, breeding in Melville 

 Peninsula, and in Hudson's Bay, as far south as the fifty- 

 fifth parallel. It lays four eggs of a dun colour, spotted 

 with red, upon a tuft of withered grass. The knot win- 

 ters in Britain, but many proceed much farther south, as 

 ive know they occur towards the end of autumn in the 

 Venetian territory. The great mass of the North Ame- 

 rican knots pass over the United States, and spend the 

 winter within the tropics. The other British species 

 are T. rufescens, Temminckii, minuta, maritima, and sab- 

 arquata. 



The genus Arenaria, Bechstein, closely resembles the 

 sandpipers of the genus Tringa, but is distinguished by 

 the entire absence of the hind toe. The only known spe- 

 cies is the sanderling (A. calidris), one of our winter birds 

 of passage, which breeds in the remotest northern re- 

 gions, forming a rude grassy nest among the desolate 

 marshes, and laying four dusky coloured eggs, spotted 

 with black. 



The genus Falcinellus, Cuv. (composed of Scol.pyg- 

 mcea, Linn.), has the bill considerably arched, and the hind 

 toe wanting. The only known species is an African bird, 

 which occasionally makes its appearance in Europe. M. 

 Temminck seems to think it should be regarded rather 

 as a synonym than a distinct actual species. 



The genus Machetes, Cuv., bears a great resemblance 

 to Tringa, except that there is an obvious palmation at 

 the base of the toes. It contains only one species, com- 

 monly called the ruff ( T. pugnax, Linn.), well known in 

 the Lincolnshire fenns and the London markets (see Plate 

 CCCC. fig. 5). It is a summer bird of passage, arriving in 

 the fenny districts of England in the month of April, and 

 departing towards the end of September. The ruff, as its 

 specific name implies, is a remarkably pugnacious species, 

 a disposition which probably arises from its polygamous ha- 

 bits, in which it differs from its congeners. Some people 

 say there are more males than females. Be this as it may, 

 as soon as these birds arrive, each male fixes upon a small 

 hillock or dry grassy spot among the marshes, where he 

 keeps turning about till he has almost trodden it bare ; but 

 the moment a female makes her appearance, a general com- 

 bat commences, the male birds lowering their heads, ex- 

 panding their neck-feathers, and flying at each other with 

 the action of fighting cocks. These battles are obstinate 

 and long continued, and whoever proves the victor for the 

 time obtains the female. They disperse at night for the 

 sake of feeding, but every morning soon after daybreak 

 each male returns to his hillock, where the same scenes 

 of rivalry and love take place, and continue till their pas- 

 sionate fervour is abated, towards the end of June. The 

 plumage of the ruff presents an almost infinite variety, 

 scarcely two individuals being ever found precisely the 

 same. The lengthened feathers of the head and neck 

 are produced in spring, and shed towards the close of 

 summer ; and during autumn and winter the plumage be- 

 comes so different from that of the breeding season, that 

 the birds would not be recognised as the same by any one 

 previously ignorant of such mutation. Their flesh is high- 



ly esteemed as a delicate and nutritious food. Though 

 these birds extend northwards as far as Iceland, and the 

 colder parts of Russia, they never visit Scotland, the v 

 marsh of Prestwick Car, near Newcastle, appearing to 

 be their British boundary. They occur, though rarely, 

 in North America. Though their natural food is worms 

 and water insects, they fatten soon in confinement on 

 boiled wheat, or bread and milk mixed with bruised hemp- 

 seed. 



The genus Heteropoda of Nuttall has the bill straight, 

 rather enlarged and punctate at the extremity, the tarsus 

 of moderate length, the three anterior toes connected at 

 the base by a membrane. Example, Tringa semipalmata, 

 Wilson. In the genus Hemipalma, Bonaparte, the bill 

 is much larger than the head, partly arched, dilated, and 

 studded at the tip with minute tubercles. The tarsus is 

 very long, and the toes are usually connected by a mem- 

 brane as far as the first articulation. The species are call- 

 ed stilt sandpipers, of which H. himantopus was discover- 

 ed by C. L. Bonaparte and Mr Cooper. Both these genera 

 are American. 



In the singular genus Eurinorhynchus, Wilson, the 

 bill is short, thin, depressed, spoon-shaped, the tarsi short, 

 slender, reticulated. The only known species is a very 

 rare and remarkable bird, E. griseus, native, it is suppos- 

 ed, both to Europe and America. 1 It was formerly class- 

 ed with the spoon-bills (Platalea pygmea, Linn.), though 

 scarcely larger than a sparrow. There is a specimen in 

 the French Museum, which was accidentally killed near 

 Paris. The plumage is gray above, white beneath. 



In the genus Phalaropus of Brisson, the bill, though 

 more flattened, resembles that of Tringa, but the toes 

 are margined by a broadish membrane. In their habits the 

 species are more aquatic than most of their congeners ; for 

 though they cannot dive, they float buoyantly on the sur- 

 face, or even make their way by swimming with almost 

 the ease of the regularly web-footed birds. The gray 

 phalarope or scallop-toed sandpiper (Phal. lobatus, Flem.) 

 is found occasionally in Britain during winter. It breeds 

 habitually within the arctic circle, in Hudson's Bay, 

 among the North Georgian Islands, and along the sterile 

 shores of Melville Peninsula. According to Mr Bullock, 

 it is not uncommon in the marshes of Sunda and Westra, 

 the most northerly of the Orkney Isles. When seen 

 swimming in pools, it is continually dipping its bill into 

 the water, as if feeding on some minute aquatic creature. 

 The plumage varies greatly with the season, and a variety 

 of names have been bestowed in consequence of these mu- 

 tations. The red phalarope ( Tringa fulicaria, Linn.) re- 

 presents the summer plumage. It was seen by our north- 

 ern navigators on the 10th of June, in latitude 68°, swim- 

 ming at its ease though several miles from land, but sur- 

 rounded by mountains of ice. 



In the genus Strepsilas, Illiger, the legs are rather 

 low, the bill short, and the toes without palmation as in 

 Tringa, but the bill is conical and pointed, with the nasal 

 fissure extending only one half its length. The hind toe 

 nearly touches the ground. The only known species, 

 St. inlerpres (of which St. morinellus is the young) is a 

 winter bird of passage on the mainland of Britain, though 

 it breeds and remains throughout the year among the 

 Shetland Isles. The turnstone, as it is vernacularly called, 

 is one of the most generally distributed of birds, being 

 found at some season or other in almost every region of 

 the globe. The English name is derived from its habit of 

 turning over little stones along the shore in search of food, 

 which it is enabled to do by its bill being proportionally 

 stronger and stiffer than that of its congeners. 



1 Acad. Sicec. 1816, pi. vi. 



