WILSON'S PHALAROPE 203 



female ; the mantle-feathers blackish-brown, with reddish 

 edges ; the crown of the head uniform blackish, the nape 

 white, shading off into ashy-grey on the hind-neck; all the 

 vinous parts of the upper surface indicated as in the female, 

 but the colour never so bright, and always of a dull chestnut ; 

 rump and upper tail-coverts white, with a sub-terminal line of 

 dusky-brown, forming a kind of horse-shoe mark on the feather, 

 the lateral upper tail-coverts white ; sides of crown chestnut, 

 like the sides of the neck, slightly mixed with black, but not 

 entirely black, as in the female ; under surface of body as in 

 the female, but the rufous part duller. Total length, 8-3 

 mches; culmen, i'25; wing, 4-9; tail, i"85; tarsus, 1-25. 



Adult Male in Winter Plumage. — General colour above light 

 ashy-grey, with narrow white fringes to the feathers; lower back 

 somewhat more dusky ; rump and upper tail-coverts white, 

 the longer tail-coverts ashy-grey, with white margins ; crown of 

 head ashy-grey, like the neck ; forehead, a broad eyebrow, 

 sides of face, and entire under surface of body pure white; 

 feathers in front of the eye blackish ; along the top of the ear- 

 coverts a line of ashy ; sides of upper breast shaded with light 

 ashy. 



Young. — Mottled on the upper surface, the feathers being 

 blackish in the centre, with light sandy-buff edges, being 

 broader and rather more distinct on the wing-coverts, scapulars, 

 and inner secondaries ; the lower back like the rest of the 

 upper surface ; rump and upper tail-coverts white, the former 

 with dusky centres to the feathers ; tail-feathers brown, all but 

 the centre ones white on the inner web; bastard-wing, primary- 

 coverts, and primaries as in the adult ; crown of head blackish, 

 the feathers edged with sandy-huff, the hind-neck more ashy, 

 the feathers with dusky centres and narrow ashy-brown margins; 

 forehead, eyebrow, sides of face, and under-surface of body 

 white, with a tinge of ashy on the eyebrow ; lower throat, fore- 

 neck, and chest, as well as the sides of the body, tinged with 

 isabelline, the sides of the breast and flanks mottled with 

 blackish centres to the feathers. 



Range in Great Britain. — On May 18, 1886, at a meeting of the 

 Zoological Society of London, Mr. J. Whitaker exhibited a 

 specimen of this species, which was stated to have been shot 



