CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 7. GRALLATORES. 
273 
THE GHAT PHALABOPE. 
they walk about as much at their ease as on land. Their notes are weet, weet, tweet, uttered 
in a sharp, clear tone. In their spring and autumn migrations they assemble in flocks, and are 
often seen feeding on floating beds of sea-weed, a hundred miles from land. They breed in 
high northern latitudes of both continents during the summer, at which time they are seen in 
pairs. About August they move southward, and pay transient visits to the maritime parts of 
Europe, as well as to the Atlantic borders of the United States. They are said, also, to be found 
in California and Oreo-on. 
Other species are the Red Phalarope, P . fulicarius, smaller than the preceding, resembling it, 
however, and distributed in the same countries ; and Wilson's Phalabope, P. Wilsoni, a beau- 
tiful species, ten inches long ; irregular in its migrations, and rarely seen ; distributed through- 
out temperate North America. 
THE TKTJE SNIPES. 
Genus SCOLOPAX : Sco- 
lopax. — The most noted spe- 
cies is the European Wood- 
cock — Becasse of the French, 
Beccaccia of the Italians, and 
Waldschnepfe of the Germ ans 
— S. rusticola. It is thirteen 
inches long ; weight fifteen 
to twenty-seven ounces ; fe- 
males a little the largest ; 
color various mixtures of 
brown ; bill very long and 
straight ; the eye large ; the 
eggs three to four, yellow- 
ish-white, blotched and spot- 
ted with gray ; habits noc- 
turnal, reposing during the 
day, and seeking its food, 
consisting chiefly of earth- 
worms, at night. It is guided in its search by smell, and strikes its long, sensitive bill with unerr- 
VoL. II. — 35 
THE EUROPEAN WOODCOCK. 
