Crass Il. . GODWIT SNIPE. 
Atheneus, who is particular in his description of 
the atiagas, and evinces it :to:be of ‘the partridge 
tribe. » He says itis-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 wings» 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 plams of Marathon; but we discover it in 
Samos, an island of Lonia, a country celebrated 
by the antients for producing the finest kinds: 
Inter sapores fertur alitum primus 
Tonicarum gustus attugenarum, 
is the opinion of Martial ;* Horace,| and Pliny, 
both speak of it with applause. Tournefort 4 
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 Aristophanes and Atheneus. It 
* Epig. Lib. xin. Ep, 61. + Epod. ii. 
} Lib. x. ¢. 48. § Voy. Vol. 1. 311. 4éo. ed. 
VOL. II. E 
