Class II. GODWIT SNIPE. 49 



Athen(2us, who is particular in his description ot 

 the attagas, and evinces it to be of the partridge 

 tribe. He says it is less than that bird ; that the 

 back is spotted with different colors, some of a 

 pot color, but more red ; that by reason of the 

 shortness of the wino;s and heaviness of the 

 body, it is taken easily by the fowlers. That 

 it rolls in the dust, brings many young, and feeds 

 on seeds. 



We are sorry to own our small acquaintance 

 with the zoology of Attica, considering the va- 

 rious opportunities our countrymen have had of 

 informing themselves of it. We therefore can- 

 not pronounce, that the attagas still exists on 

 the plains of Marathon ; but we discover it in 

 Samos, an island of Ionia, a country celebrated 

 by the antients for producing the finest kinds ; 



Inter sapores fertur alituin primus 



lonicarum gustus dttagenarum, ' " " 



is the opinion oi IMartial f^ Horace,\ and Pliny,X 

 both speak of it with applause. Tournefort\ 

 has given us the figure of the bird itself, which 

 he found in the marshes of Samos ; whose paint- 

 ed and spotted plumage exactly answers the de- 

 scriptions of Ainstophanes and Athenctus. It 



* Epig. Lib. xiii. Ep, 6l. f Epod. ii. 

 X Lib. X. c. 48. § Vol/. Vol. i. 311. Ato. ed. 



VOL. i:. E 



