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HYPERBOREAN PHALAROPE. 
As we advanced eastward in the month of May, we saw more and more ot 
them, and while at Eastport in Maine my son John shot several out of 
flocks of sixty or more. At one time a flock consisting of more than a 
hundred was seen in the Bay of Fundy. They were exceedingly shy, and 
the gunners of Eastport, who knew them under the name of Sea Geese, 
spoke of them as very curious birds. 
They procure their food principally upon the water, on which they alight 
like Ducks, float as light as Gulls, and move about in search of food with 
much ftimbleness. The sight of a bank of floating sea-weeds or garbage 
of any kind induces them at once to alight upon it, when they walk about 
as unconcernedly as if on land. Their notes, which resemble the syllables 
tweet , tweet, tweet , are sharp and clear, and in their flight they resemble our 
common American Snipe. At the approach of an enemy, they immediately 
close their ranks, until they almost touch each other, when great havoc is 
made among them ; but if not immediately shot at, they rise all at once 
and fly swiftly off, emitting their shrill cries, and remove to a great dis- 
tance. These Phalaropes congregate in this manner for the purpose of 
moving northwards to their breeding-grounds, although some remain and 
breed as far south as Mount Desert Island. I have met with them in equally 
large flocks at a distance of more than a hundred miles from the shores. 
They were feeding on great beds of floating seaweeds, and in several 
instances some Red Phalaropes were seen in their company. 
Whilst in Labrador, I observed that the Hyperborean Phalarope occurred 
only in small parties of a few pairs, and that instead of keeping at sea or on 
the salt-water bays, they were always in the immediate vicinity of small 
fresh-water lakes or ponds, near which they bred. The nest was a hollow 
scooped out among the herbage, and covered with a few bits of dried grass 
and moss. The eggs are always four ; they measure at an average an inch 
and three-sixteenths in length, seven-eighths in their greatest diameter, are 
rather pointed at the smaller end, and are more uniform in their size and 
markings than those of most water-birds. The ground colour is deep dull 
buff, and is irregularly marked with large and small blotches of dark reddish- 
brown, which are larger and more abundant on the crown. The birds shew- 
ed great anxiety for the safety of their eggs, limping before us, or running 
with extended wings, and emitting a feeble melancholy note, as if about to 
expire. When we approached them, they resumed all their natural alacrity, 
piped in their usual manner, flew off and alighted on the water. Captain 
Emery and myself followed some nearly*an hour, assisted by a pointer dog, 
in the hope of tiring them out ; but they seemed to laugh at our efforts, and 
when Dash was quite close to them, they would suddenly fly off in another 
direction, and with great swiftness, always leading us farther from their 
