796 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. —LIMICOL^. 



Fig. 552. — Foot of Red-necked Phala- 

 rope, uat. size. (Ad. iiat. del. E. C.) 



secondaries. $ duller and smaller. Bill and feet black. Length 7.00-7.50 ; extent 13.50; 

 wing 4.25-4.50; tail 2.00; bill, tarsus, middle toe and claw, each, under 1.00. Adult $ 9) i" 



winter: Above plain pearly gray or light ash, varied with 

 white edgings of the feathers, especially marked on the scap- 

 ulars and long inner secondaries, and also with some dusky 

 shaft-lines ; most of the head and all the under parts white ; 

 a dusky patch on the side of the head, involving eyes and 

 ears; bill blackish; feet pale bluish; iris blackish-brown. 

 Young : Above blackish, with distinct buff borders of the 

 dorsal and scapular feathers ; wing-coverts similarly dusky, 

 with buff or whitish edges, the greater coverts more distinctly tipped with white ; middle tail- 

 feathers edged with buff, others with white; top of head and hind-neck dark slaty; a dark patch 

 about eyes and on auriculars; forehead, line over eye, and whole under parts white, more or less 

 overcast with light brownish on the sides of the neck and breast ; bill blackish ; feet pale, ob- 

 scured on the joints and outside of tarsus; iris light brown. It thus varies much in plumage 

 with age and season, but is easily recognized by the small size and generic characters. Chicks 

 in down rich buff above, silvery-gray below; crown mi.xed blackish and yellow; a long black 

 stripe down back, another over each hip, one across rump, and a shoulder-spot. Northern Hem- 

 isphere at large, breeding in Arctic and some subarctic regions, migrating into the Tropics 

 sometimes; generally distributed, but especially coastwise, maritime; large flocks at sea. 

 Eggs 3-4, June, July, average 1.20 X 0.80 (from 1.30 X 0.75 to 1.10 X 0.82), very vari- 

 able in size, shape, and color; greenish-olive or brownish-olive to various drab and buffy 

 shades of ground color, usually very 

 boldly spotted and splaslied, some- 

 times in finer pattern, with bistrous, 

 chocolate, and lighter brown. This 

 species is the type of the genus Lobi- 

 pes Cuv. 1817, but not of Phalaropus 

 Briss. 1760. It is the Coot-footed 

 Tringa of Edw. Nat. Hist. pi. 46 

 and pi. 143. Tringa lobata Linn. 

 1758; T. lobata and T. hyperborea 

 Linn. 1766, by his descriptions, but 

 with some wrong references under 

 the former name; Phalaropus hyper- 

 boreus Lath. 1790, ^, his supposed 

 9 being the next species, and of 

 many authors; Lobipes hyperhoreus 

 of most authors, as of all former eds. 

 of the Key. Ph. fuscus Lath. 1790. Ph. vulgaris Bechst. 1803. Ph. williamsii SiM- 

 monds, 1807. Ph. cinereiis Meyer, 1810. Ph. ruficollis and Ph. cinerascens Pale. 1811 ; Ph. 

 angustirostris Naum. 1836. Ph. lobipes Keys, and Blas. 1840. Ph. australis and molticcen- 

 sis " Temm." Ph. asiatieus and Lobipes tropicus Hume, 1873. Lobipes lobatus Bd. Brew. 

 and EiDGW. 1884. Phalaropus {Phalaropus!) lobatus A. 0. U. Lists, 1886-95, No. 223. 

 PHALA'ROPUS. (Coined by Brisson in 1760 from Gr. (paXapis, phalaris, the coot, and 

 TTovs, pons, foot, to express what Edwards meant in saying "Coot-footed.") Coot-FOOT 

 Phalaropes. Bill scarcely longer than head or tarsus; very stout for this family; much de- 

 pressed, so broad as to be almost s])atulate, tip only moderately acute, lancet-shaped. Upper 

 mandible with ridge broad and flattened, apex arched and decurved, lateral grooves wide and 

 shallow. Interramal space broad and very long, extending nearly to end of bill. Nostrils 



Phalarope. (From Seebohm's Chara- 



