208 
WADING BIRDS. 
preceding species. In summer it dwells and breeds gener- 
ally within the Arctic Circle in both continents. It penetrates 
into Greenland, Iceland, and Spitzbergen, is abundant in the 
north of Scotland, in the Orkneys and Hebrides, is equally 
prevalent in Lapland, on the northern coasts of Siberia, 
and between Asia and America, a transient visitor on the 
shores of the Baltic, and seen only accidentally in Germany 
and Holland. It sometimes, though very rarely, penetrates in- 
land as far as the lakes of Switzerland, and in its natal regions 
visits lakes of fresh as well as salt water. At the period of their 
migrations, in May and August, these birds betake themselves 
to the open sea, particularly in autumn, and are then gregarious, 
assembling in flocks ; at other times they are seen in pairs, 
and, like the preceding, have a constant habit of dipping the 
bill into the water, as if in the act of collecting the minute mol- 
lusca which may be floating in it. They are also often seen on 
the wing, and are said by Willoughby to utter a shrill, clamorous 
cry, or twitter, resembling that of the Greater Tern. 
In Arctic America, where this Phalarope resides in the mild 
season, it is seen to seek out shady pools, in which it swims 
with peculiar ease and elegance, its attitudes much resembling 
those of the Common Teal. 
These birds arrive to breed around Hudson Bay about the 
beginning of June, and old and young are seen to frequent the 
sea-coast previous to their departure, which takes place often 
soon after the middle of August, on the i6th or 17th of 
which they are occasionally killed in different parts of Massa- 
chusetts Bay and near Newport in Rhode Island. They like- 
wise probably pay a transient visit to the coast of New Jersey, 
as they do also, at times, to Long Island, and finally repair 
to the mild shores of the Mexican Gulf, being seen in the 
markets of Mexico and Vera Cruz. Migrating probably by 
sea and outside of the land, they but rarely visit the coast in 
any part of the United States. Straggling families of the old 
and young are met with in the vicinity of Boston nearly every 
year about the beginning of May and the middle of August, 
commonly in salt-water pools near the sea, and, as usual, they 
