202 ALLEN'S NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



and middle toe not reaching to the second joint, and the latcra 

 membrane narrow, and scarcely scalloped. 



Only one species, peculiar to America, is kno\Yn, viz. : — 



I. Wilson's phalarope. steganopus tricolor. 

 Steganopus tricolor, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxxii. p. 136 



(1819). 



Phalaropus wilsoni, Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 552, note (1889). 



Adult Female in Breeding Plumage. — General colour above light 

 grey in the middle of the back, with a_broad streak of vinous- 

 chestnut on each side of the mantle ; scapulars for the most 

 part dark vinous-chestnut, forming a broad streak on each side 

 of the back ; lower back and rump brown, the sides of the 

 latter white; upper tail-coverts dusky-brown, irregularly mottled 

 and edged with white, the longer ones centred with pale rufous, 

 the lateral ones pure white ; wing-coverts uniform dull brown, 

 with a narrow white edging to the greater coverts ; bastard- 

 wing and primary-coverts like the wing-coverts ; quills also 

 dusky-brown with light brown shafts, the first primary with a 

 white shaft ; centre tail-feathers ashy-brown, the remainder 

 ashy-brown, with more or less white on the inner web, the 

 white increasing in extent towards the outermost rectrix, 

 which has little more than the outer web ashy ; crown of head 

 uniform pearly-grey ; occiput, nape, and hind-neck white ; 

 lores grey, like the head, followed by a white ante-ocular spot, 

 which is surrounded by a black margin ; upper eyelid also 

 white, lower eyelid black, like the feathers in front of the 

 eye and below the latter, where they form part of a black band 

 formed by the ear-coverts, and the sides of the neck and sides 

 of the crown ; cheeks, chin, and upper throat white ; lower 

 throat clear ferruginous or chestnut, sharply defined on the 

 upper margin, and becoming paler on the fore-neck and sides 

 of breast ; centre of fore-neck, breast, and under surface of 

 body pure white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries also white, 

 the feathers round the edge of the wing ashy-brown ; quills 

 below dusky-brown, slightly paler along in the inner web ; bill 

 black ; feet bluish-grey, claws black ; iris brown. Total length, 

 9-3 inches ; culmen, 1-45 ; wing, 5-5 ; tail, 2-3; tarsus, 1-35. 

 Adult Male in Breeding Plumage.— Much duller than in the 



