290 POULTRY AND WILD BIRDS 
ming, and by the way it partly flies and partly runs over the water when 
disturbed. It has long legs, long toes with scalloped flaps, and a bill 
like a chicken’s. Mud-hens are the most numerous swimmers on our 
lakes, but are very hard to get with a gun. 
If you ever try to eat one of them you will 
never long for another. Very common S.R. 
21s Yellow Rail. M. 
Phalarope Family. — Small wading and 
swimming birds with long legs and long, 
slender bills. On shore they appear like 
Sandpipers, but they have webbed feet 
like Coots and Grebes (‘‘ lobed ’’) and are 
good swimmers. The male makes the 
nest and hatches the young. The female 
| does the courting. She is the new woman 
| in bird society. 
AMERICAN AVOCET 223 Northern Phalarope. M. 
224 Wilson Phalarope. S.R. 
Stilt Family. — Legs are extremely long, suggesting stilts; bills are 
long and slender and are bent upward. They find their food at the 
bottom of shallow water. The avocets are 
good swimmers as well as waders. 
225 American Avocet. S.R. 
Snipe Family. — A large family of shore 
birds generally long-legged, long-billed, and 
short-tailed, but varying greatly among 
themselves. Their toes have little or no 
webbing. Their colors are browns, dull 
yellows, and grays. The Woodcock and 
Snipes (Nos. 228-232) have very long bills, 
but their legs are comparatively short. 
They have plump bodies and are prized 
as game birds. The Sandpipers have shorter bills, their bodies are 
more slender, and their movements quick and’ graceful. After a run, 
many of them have a characteristic habit of teetering the body in 
a see-saw manner. Most of the Sandpipers like to paddle in the 
Least SANDPIPER 
