BRITISH BIRDS. 
23 
brown, the rest taper "off in length, and turn lighter 
coloured as they shorten, and are margined on the 
outer webs with pale rusty yellow and white; the 
whole of the under parts, from the throat to the end of 
the vent feathers, are of a deep vinous chesnut; the 
legs are dusky, and the toes are scallopped like those 
of the Grey Phalarope, but the middle claws, w^hich 
are short, hooked, and sharp, are both turned out- 
ward. The above description was taken from a male 
bird brought from Davis’s Straits, where they are pret- 
ty numerous about the mouth of Hudson’s river. Al- 
though they are very fat and plump, they are extreme- 
ly active, and swim about nimbly in quest of their 
food, which chiefly consists of the slimy substance 
called whale’s food, so frequently seen floating on the 
surface of the waters of the northern seas. They are 
occasionally met with on the British shores. 
The author was furnished by Mr Charles Fothergill, 
with two stufled specimens, male and female, and the 
eggs of these birds. The above figure was taken from 
the former. It differs in its plumage from the fore- 
going description ; its head, and a narrow stripe on the 
front, another on the hinder part of the neck, which 
last spread over the shoulder, were of a dark ash co- 
lour; the throat white; the sides of the neck and 
breast are of a brilliant bay colour ; the upper parts of 
the plumage are deep brown, nearly black, the under 
parts white. The bird must have been improperly 
dried in the stuffing, as its bill and the scallopped 
toes seemed much shrivelled up. The eggs, four in 
number, like others of the Tringa genus, were very 
large; they were of a dingy olive, blotched and 
spotted with brown. 
