280 SKETCHES OP EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



a bony protuberance, hemispherical and slightly elevated. The 

 triangular base of the fundus of the glottis is very prominent. Sa- 

 bine describes the trachea of the King Eider as exhibiting a simi- 

 lar structure. The following are the characters of the new genus, 

 as traced by Gould : Beak swollen at the base, elevated, extending 

 up the forehead, and divided by a triangular projection of feathers ; 

 towards the tip, narrow and blunt. Nostrils small, placed in the 

 middle of the beak. The two figures, male and female, respectively 

 exhibited in these plates, are drawn and coloured with inimitable 

 correctness, grace, and splendour. 



Plate XIII. — The White-winged Crossbill, — Loxia leucopiera, 

 — Curviroslra leucopiera, of Wilson. See American Ornithology, 

 pi. 31, p. 42 ; and Northern Zoology, v. ii., p. 363. Of this beau- 

 tiful bird, one specimen only has yet been taken in the British 

 islands, and probably in Europe : since it is not mentioned by Tem- 

 minck. The colouring of the male bird, by Gould, is exceedingly 

 fine. 



Plate XIV. — The Ruffed Bustard, — Otis Houhara, — Outarde 

 Houbara, Fr., — Kragentrappe, G. The genus, Otis, comprehends 

 only three European species, — tarda, tetrax, and the beautiful sub- 

 ject of the present most striking and superb plate; which, although 

 occasionally met with in Spain and South Europe, is unquestiona- 

 bly a native of North Africa and Arabia. Persons who idly prate 

 about the unrivalled superiority of Audubon's great work, will do 

 well to gaze on this noble production of Mr. Gould's pencil, and 

 confess their error. 



Plates XV. and XVI. exhibit the only two European species 

 of the genus Phalaropus, in two figures each, illustrative of the pe- 

 culiarities of the summer- and winter- plumage in ihe Jirst, or Grey 

 Phalarope, — Phalaropus platyrhynchus, — Phalarope Platyrhinque, 

 Fr. ; and of its sexual diversities in the second, or Red-necked 

 Phalarope, — Ph. hyperboreus, — Ph. Hyperbore, Fr., — Gemeiner 

 und Rothalsiger Wassertretter, in its young and adult age, of the 

 Germans. The former is the Ph. lohatus, of Fleming ; and the 

 latter has been transferred, by Cuvier, to a new genus, under the 

 name of Lobipes hyperborea. The separation of birds so nearly al- 

 lied in structure and in habits as the two European Phalaropes, 

 appears to us highly objectionable : and yet more so, the designation 

 Lobipes, by which Cuvier has sought to distinguish the newly-con- 

 stituted genus. Is it right to select, as a ground of nomenclature 

 for a new genus, a character not peculiar to the animal taken for 

 the typical species; but exhibited by other species of the genus 



