PHALANGES— PHALAROPE 71 r 



and well known from Plot's description {Hist. Staffordsh. pi. xix. 



pp. 231-233) had ceased to be occupied by the end of the last 



centmy, and most of the other stations throughout the country have 



been destroyed, some through drainage, but often by carelessness and 



occasionally by greediness — for the eggs are a valuable commodity, 



even as the young in old days were accounted ^ — but there are still 



two of considerable size in England, Scoulton in Norfolk, and 



Twigmoor in Lincolnshire. The name Pewit, in Scotland Peaseweep, 



is now more commonly applied to the Lapwing, but in each case 



it was given from the bird's cry, as it is in North America to one . y, / 



of the Tyrant-birds, Sayornis fiisca, which is a general favourite l-t-^CfH^^jf 



there as a recognized harbinger of summer.^ To some ears its note rf. (^/Ha-4'-^ 



sounds like "phebe," and as the " PncEBE-bird " ^ it was first 



described by Pennant. In certain districts it bears the name of 



"Bee-eater," to which it is very likely entitled, and there it is not 



very popular with the owners of hives. 



PHALANGES, the several bones composing the digits. In 

 those of the hind limb (or Toes) the original and almost universal 

 number is 2 for the Hallux, and 3, 4 and 5 for the second, third 

 and fourth digits respectively. Exceptions are found in Cypselus 

 and Panyptila (Swift), where the second, third and fourth toes have 

 each 3 phalanges, in some of the .Caprimulgi (Nightjar), and in the 

 singular genus Cholornis from Western China and of doubtful 

 afiinity, where the fourth digit is reduced to a mere stump. Of the 

 wing-digits the PoLLEX has 2 phalanges, the index 2 or 3, and the 

 third 1 or 2 — the terminal phalanges being often very small or 

 represented by cartilage only. 



PHALAROPE, Brisson's maladroit rendering * of the " Coot- 

 footed Tringa" of Edwards who, in 1741, shewed himself a better 

 judge of its affinities than many others both before and after him, 

 since for a long while some of the best authorities thought the 

 Phalaropes allied to the Coot, whereas they are unquestionably 

 Liviicolx, only somewhat modified in accordance with their habit of 

 swimming. There are three species, each possessing a peculiarity 

 of structure sufficient to warrant its being regarded as generic were 

 the doing so convenient. The type is Phalaropus fulicarius, com- 

 monly known in England as the Grey Phalarope, from the prevalent 

 colour of its winter-plumage, which it has generally donned when 



^ They were netted before they could fly, and kept in pens to be killed for 

 the table as wanted, selling in Ray's time for five shillings the dozen. 



^ Not to be confounded with the Pev/ee. 



^ This name is usually so spelt, but it has nothing to do with the moon- 

 goddess or any one named after her. 



* His generic terra should have been Phalaridopics from (paXapis, -idos {cf, 

 Murdoch, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, iii. p. 150). 



