AMBLYRHYNCHUS. 247 



Subgenus. — * Amblyrhynchus. 



With the bill slender and depressed, dilated and rounded at the 

 extremity. The feet more than half palmated, and the toes bor- 

 dered with a plain or unscolloped membrane. 



PLAIN PHALAROPE. 



(Phalaropus glacialis, Lath. Plain Phalarope, Pexn. Arct, Zool. 

 No 415. Richard. North. Zool. ii. p. 409. Tringa glacialis, 

 Gmel. Syst. i. p. 675. sp. 32. Phalarope a cou jaune, Sonnini, 

 edit, de Buffox, Ois. xxiii. p. 296.) 



This very singular bird, described by Pennant, was taken to the 

 north of Behring's Straits, near Icy Cape, in latitude 69^ N. and 

 longitude 191 J E. in the beginning of August, or end of July, on Cap- 

 tain Cook's last voyage. Recent authors have very unjustly referred 

 it to P. hyperhoreus, gratuitously supposing it to be an example in the 

 moult. Dr. Richardson remarks, '• I have ground for believing that 

 a very handsome Phalarope, answering, in some particulars, to the 

 Plain Phalarope, and unknown to the naturalists of the present 

 day, exists in America. In September, 1819, while at York Factory, 

 Hudson's Bay, a small bird was brought to me, which had a de- 

 pressed bill, rounded at the end ; wnth the feet more than half pal- 

 mated, and the toes evenly bordered to the nails. Its plumage, as 

 far as my recollection goes, was mostly white. The natives said that 

 it was the only bird of the kind, they had ever seen." This speci- 

 men, with others sent to London, were subsequently lost, and the 

 species thus thrown back into its original obscurity. But, as the 

 Doctor remarks, from the rarity of this bird at Hudson's Bay, it 

 most probably frequents the northern side of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and, it is to be hoped that it may one day be found in New Caledonia. 

 This specimen was probably the winter plumage of the species ; 

 while Pennant's may be the summer livery. It is thus briefly 

 described by him. 



" Ph. With a slender black bill, dilated at the end : crown dus- 

 ky and dull yellow : across each eye a black line : cheeks and fore 

 part of the neck a pale clay color, '• (yellowish :) " breast and belly 

 white : back and tertials dusky, edged with dull yellow : wing cov- 



