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PHALAROPIN^E. 



PHALAROPES AND ALLIED SPECIES. 



The next two genera have by some ornithologists been 

 formed into a family, Phalaropida?, and placed in connexion 

 with the Coots. Their affinities, however, are with the 

 Tringina? and Totanina?, their general form being similar, 

 and their digestive organs the same. Their lobed toes and 

 natatorial habits have given rise to this misapprehension. 

 In accordance with their habits, they have the tarsi much 

 compressed and the plumage dense. Whether they ought 

 to form a separate family or not, their proper place is 

 between the Tringinae, which one of the genera resembles in 

 its bill, and the Totatinse, to which the other genus approxi- 

 mates in the form of that organ. They are small or diminu- 

 tive birds, remarkable for being often met at a great distance 

 from land, where they alight among floating sea-weed, and, 

 it would appear, for their extreme but ill-placed confidence 

 in man, at least during their residence on fresh-water. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE BRITISH GENERA AND SPECIES. 



GENUS I. PHALAROPUS. 



Bill rather longer than the head, almost straight, slender, 

 with the ridge flattened, the nasal groove extending to two- 

 thirds, the breadth considerably enlarged toward the end, 

 the tip obtuse. Nostrils basal, oblong, with an elevated 



