202 
BRITISH BIRDS. 
or yellow. Nothing can exceed the dean, clear, 
and glofly whitenefs of its clofe-fet feathers on the 
under parts of the body ; but the upper plumage is 
of a plain fober lead-coloured grey. The egg is an 
inch and a half in length, of a dirty yellowifli 
brown, dafhed all over with reddifli blotches. 
This bird is met with in the fummer months 
about the Baltic, in fome parts of Ruffia, the river 
Irtifli in Siberia, the Black and Cafpian feas, and in 
America near New York, &c. In Belon’s time 
the fifliermen floated a crofs of wood, in the 
middle of which was faflened a fmall fifli for a bait, 
with limed twigs fluck to the four corners, on which 
the bird darting, was entangled by the wings.” 
