430 Mr. J. E. Harting on rare or 



only as he had himself observed, we must conclude that he 

 mistook some other bird for that to which he refers. Dr. 

 Hartlaub has expressed an opinion that Bancroft's bird was 

 probably the Ereunetes of lUiger; but I do not think that such 

 a conclusion is justified by the author's description. Bancroft 

 remarks (/. c), " Here is also the Platalcea of Linnccus, with a 

 flattish bill, dilated, orbiculated, and flat at the point. It is 

 of the size of a Sparrow : the upper part of its body is brown, 

 but the lower is white; and it has four toes palmated.'' From 

 this last statement I should infer that the bird was most proba- 

 bly Phalaropus fulicarius in winter plumage. 



In the Transactions of the Academy of Sciences of Stock- 

 holm for 181Q [I.e.) the Swedish naturalist Thunberg published a 

 full description of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper under the title of 

 Platalea pijymcea^; and subsequently Nilssonf, in his 'Orui- 

 thologia Suecica' (^-c.), founded on this bird the new genus 

 Eurynorliynchus, at the same time bestowing the specific name 

 oi griseus, which more recent investigation has shown to be ap- 

 plicable to this bird in the winter plumage only. Here, again, it 

 seems necessary to correct a mistake which has been made by 

 several authors in attributing to Nilsson the paper which ap- 

 peared in the 'Transactions' above mentioned, Nilsson's obser- 

 vations having been published five years later in his ' Ornitho- 

 logia Suecica.' 



licsson has included this species in his various works, but 

 his notions respecting it seem to have been very vague. In 

 his ' Manuel d'Ornithologie ' he remarks (/. c), "Get oiseau nous 

 semble etre le Tyran hec en euiller," referring to a genus (7)/- 

 rannus) which is as unlike it as well can be! In his 'Traite' 

 [I.e.) he says, "Du nord de Pancien et du nouveau continent ; tres 

 rare en Europe ; le museum en possede un individu tue pres de 



* "Platalea jyygmcsa xidfive beskrifven, med iigur, af C P. Thunberg." 

 t It would seem as if Nilsson bad previously communicated bis in- 

 tention of founding tbis genus to Temminck, since the last-named natu- 

 ralist mentioned it (id sttpnl cii.) in bis work published in 1820, while 

 Nilsson's second volume, containing tbe description, did not appear till 

 1821, Cuvier or bis printer put " Wilson " for " Nilsson ; " and tbis error 

 has been freqwently copied. 



