March, 1901. -• -■ - , - 53 



THE NATURAL HISTORY 

 OF THE GREY PHALAROPE 



(PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS.) 

 BY CHARGES J. PATTEN, B.A., M.D. 



(Read before the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, March 13, 1900.) 



(Pi,ATE 3.) 



This beautiful little bird attracts the attention of the observer 

 for many reasons. Its elegant movements both on land and 

 in the water meet with the highest admiration, in addition to 

 which, its many structural peculiarities afford no small amount 

 of interest to the student of morphology. 



The Grey Phalarope has been classified as a wading bird. 

 Systematists have, during more recent times, placed it in the 

 order Limicolce, and have further considered its affinities 

 sufficiently close to the Plovers, God wits, Curlews and others 

 so as to include it in the large family of Charadriid<z. But the 

 Phalarope is not a type of this family. In many ways, in its 

 habits of life, in its movements and general demeanour, and 

 in its structural characters, it is quite aberrant, and it seems 

 to represent a species which, speaking generally, may be said 

 to link together wading birds with the aquatic or web-footed 

 forms. Its low and somewhat undulating form of flight, its 

 rapid movement of the wings, its great speed and activity 

 displayed when on foot, are all features common to the 

 typical wading birds, but unlike these the Phalarope is a most 

 capable swimmer, and may be seen, perhaps far out at sea, 

 resting on the surface of the water as buoyant as a cork. In 

 this situation this little bird appears almost more at home than 

 is a sea-gull or a tern. 



External structural characters : — Correllated with its aquatic 

 habits the Phalarope has acquired a very dense covering of 

 feathers. These are particularly well seen about the breast 

 and abdomen. The latter regions are also thickly coated with 

 down. In shape the breast greatly resembles that of the gulls. 

 It is full and rounded, and owes this contour, not to any 

 modification in the form of the pectoral muscles or sternum, 

 as compared with the same in a typical wading bird, but to 

 the great curvature of the feathers, which in most wading birds 



