PHALAROPODID^ : PHALA ROPES. 



797 



subbasal, at some distance from base of bill. Wings long and pointed. Tail long, rounded, 

 central rectrices projecting, rather acuminate. Legs and feet mucli as in Lobipes, but the 

 seniipalniation of less extent. Phalarojnts Bkiss. I7G0, type Phalaropus phalaropus Briss. 

 Orn. 17GU, vi, p. 12, as fixed by Brissou himself; and by no process of "elimination" can the 

 type be made another species of a difierent genus, Crymophilus, as was done by the A. 0. U. 

 in 18H5. Crrjmophilus Vieill. 1816, type Phalaropus phalaropus Briss., and thus a strict 

 synonym of Brisson's genus Phaktrojms. Vieillot's citations of authors are not to the point ; 

 but his diagnosis is strictly and exclusively pertinent to the present genus. 

 P. fulica'rius. (Lat. fulicarius, coot-like; fulica, a coot; fiiligo, soot. Fig. 554.) 

 Red Coot-footed Tringa. Gray Coot-footed Tringa. Red Phalarope. Gray 

 Phalarope. Flat-billed Phalarope. Whale Bird. Adult 9, in summer: Under 

 parts, with sides of neck, dark purplisli, or wine-red, with a glaucous bloom. Top of head, 

 all parts and around bill, sooty. 

 Sides of head white, this color meet- 

 ing on nape. Back black, all the 

 feathers edged with tawny or rusty- 

 brown, the light sandy color con- 

 spicuous on the larger feathers, 

 where the black is reduced to a cen- 

 tral stripe on each : rump and upper 

 tail-coverts mixed sooty, black, and 

 chestnut. Quills brownisli-black, 

 with white shafts and much wiiite at 

 bases of webs ; wing-coverts dark 

 ash, ends and inner webs of greater 

 row white; some of the secondaries 

 almost entirely white; axillaries and 

 under coverts white. Middle tail- 

 feathers blackish witli buff margins : 

 tlie lateral ones gray witli wliite edg- 

 ing. Bill yellowish, witli dusky tip ; feet yellowisli. Length 7.50-8.00; extent 14.50 or more; 

 wiuir 5.00-5.50; tail 2.50; bill 0.90; tarsus 0.75-0.80; middle toe and claw rather more. The 

 adult (J in summer is smaller and not so richly colored, especially on the under jiarts; top uf 

 head streaky, like the back, less white on sides of head. Adult ^ '^ ,\n winter : Head all around, 

 and entire under parts, white; a dusky circumocular area and nudial crescent, and a wasli 

 of ashy along sides of body. Above, nearly uniform pearly ash. Wings ashy-blackish, the 

 white cross-bar very conspicuous; bill mostly dark ; feet obscured. Young birds rescmlile the 

 winter adults in being white below, but there not pure, with a butf tinge on tlie neck ami breast ; 

 they resemble the summer adults above, but have the dusky nuclial crescent. Youtig in the 

 down are bright buff above, with black streaks; top of head brown bordered with blaek; lower 

 jiarts whitish, more or less tinged with buff on the throat and breast. A species of circumptdar 

 distribution in summer, wandering soutli in winter, chiefly maritime, but liable to appear cas- 

 ually anywhere in the U. S. Nesting and egirs not distinguishalde from those of tlie last ; ei;gs 

 averairiiig lar<,'(r, — 1.15-1.30 X 0.85-0.00. This is tlie Red Co»»t-footed Tringa of Kdwanl.s, 

 Nat. Hist. 174.'{, pi. 142, in summer plumage, and the Gray Coot-footed Tringa of tin- same, 

 Gleanings, 1750. pi. 308; the latter became Phalaropus phakiropus of Bris(<i>n, Orn. 17(>0, vi, 

 p. 12, and tiie former became /'/(. rufrsrens of Brissou, ibid. p. 20. The rod bird of the.M- tw«i 

 authors is the .'jole basis of Trhujn fnlkaria Linn., but Lintupus mix<'d tlie gray bird up with 

 his Triufin lohata, which is describetl for Lohiprs hi/perborcHs, but whoso synonymy iiicln<les 

 these references to tlie present speeies. The gray bird is ahso tlie one figured in Pliiloj*. Tnina. 



Fio. 5o4. —Gray Phalarope. (From Seebohm's Cliaradriidie.) 



