194 Allen's naturalists library. 



the inner primary-coverts tipped with white, most of the 

 primaries white at the base of the outer web, the secondaries 

 for the most part white, blackish towards the ends of the outer 

 w^ebs, the innermost secondaries dark slate-colour or blackish 

 with sandy-rufous edges, like the back ; centre tail-feathers 

 blackish with sandy margins, the lateral ones dark grey fringed 

 with white, the outermost more broadly edged and having a 

 white shaft ; crown of head sooty-black ; nape and hind-neck 

 also blackish ; forehead, lores, anterior part of face, chin and 

 upper throat dark slate-colour ; feathers below the eye, a 

 small streak above the latter, and ear-coverts white ; sides of 

 neck and entire surface of body vinous chestnut ; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries white ; quills ashy below, whitish along 

 the inner webs ; bill waxy-yellow with a jet-black tip ; feet dull 

 yellowish. Total length, 7 inches; culmen, i; wing, 5-4; tail, 

 2-6 ; tarsus, 0-85. 



Adult Male in Breeding Plumage — Similar to the female, but 

 not so brightly coloured, the head being sandy-brown, streaked 

 with blackish like the back, and not so sooty-black as in the 

 female bird ; sides of face vinous-chestnut, the base of the 

 cheeks and chin tinged with slaty-grey, with a good deal cf 

 w^hite on the throat and under surface of body, which never 

 seems to get so uniformly vinous-chestnut as in the adult 

 female. Total length, 7-5 inches; culmen, 0*85; wing, 5*05 ; 

 tail, 2-55; tarsus, 2-55. 



Adult Male in Winter Plumage. — Bluisli-grey with a black patch 

 on the nape ; wings more dusky than in summer, but witli the 

 white markings similar, the innermost secondaries bluish-grey 

 like the back and scapulars ; forehead, eyebrow, sides of face 

 and entire under surface of body pure white ; the top of the 

 crown white, slightly mottled with dusky bases to the feathers ; 

 feathers in front of the eye and a streak along the upper edge 

 of the ear-coverts black. 



Young.— Distinguished from the adults by the sandy-buff 

 margins to the feathers of the upper surface and by the vinous 

 tinge of the throat and fore-neck ; the fore part of the crown 

 is buffy-white, with a broad horse-shoe mark of black on the 

 hinder crown. 



Eange in Great Britain. — The Grey Phalaropc visits us every 



