THE COAST AT MONTEREY 



209 



the Snipe, while voyaging to their Arctic summer homes, 

 had encountered the gale and been standed in vast numbers. 

 A week later, we found many wrecks of this feathered fleet 

 ashore on the Farallones, where their poor, emaciated little 

 bodies were floating in the rock-enclosed pools left by the 

 tide. 



I had previously seen this bird only on the Atlantic, rest- 

 ing in great beds on the waters or rising in silvery, curling 



Phalarope Whirling 



waves before the approach of our steamer. While I regret- 

 ted the disaster which had befallen the half-starved little 

 waifs, I realized that their ill luck was my good fortune, and 

 lost no time in availing myself of this unusual opportunity 

 to make the acquaintance of a bird which but few natura- 

 lists have met intimately. 



All the quiet bodies of water contained Phalaropes, a 

 large pond in the city of Monterey being fairly speckled 



