200 
BRITISH BIRDS, 
of a fine pale lead colour : the quills are of a deeper 
call, the outfide ones the darkeft : the legs and feet 
red* 
The female, it is faid, forms her neft in the mofs 
or long coarfe grafs, near the lake, and lays three or 
four eggs of a dull olive colour, marked with dif- 
ferent fized black fpots at the thicker end : it is 
added, that fhe covers them only during the night, 
or in the day when it rains : at all other times fhe 
leaves the hatching of them to the heat of the fun. 
This clean-looking bird is pretty common in the 
fummer months on the fea-coafts, rivers and lakes of 
the Britifh Ides, and is alfo met with in various parts 
of Europe, Afia, and America. It migrates fouth- 
ward to the Mediterranean, and to the Madeira and 
Canary Ifles, and northward as far as Spitzbergen 
and Greenland. 
