15$ ild'Iitions to the Ornithology 



and all, and resembling much more in general appearance, a 

 Totanus than a Tringa. 



This bird, together with the Tringa semipalmata, forming 

 my subgenus Hemipalama, I here subjoin a distinctive phrase 

 ibr the latter bird. 



Tringa sewipalmata, Wils. Bill shorter than the head, 

 straight ; feet moderate, semipaimated ; rump blackish ; tail 

 even, gray, middle feathers longest, bhckish. 



Total length five or six inches. Bill, six-eighths. Tarsus 

 six-eighths. Naked space of the tibia about three-eighths. 



Among a great many specimens of this very common 

 Sandpiper, I have occasionally met with some of darker plu- 

 mage and larger proportions, the bill and tarsus being even 

 proportionally larger. This observation has also been made 

 bv Wilson : we must consider these birds as belonging to a 

 large variety, although we should not be surprised at their 

 proving a third species of Hemipalama, strongly allied to 

 Tringa semipalmata. 



PHALAROPUS. 



In a note to our observations on the two species of this 

 genus, described by Mr. Ord in his Supplement to Wilson's 

 Orn., in our "Observations on the Nomenclature, &c." we 

 left somewhat unsettled, the important point, whether Phala- 

 ropus IVilsonii, Sabine, was really a new species, or an un- 

 described state of Ph. hyp>rboreus. Lath. Though perfectly 

 satisfied that the former was the case, we merely advanced it 

 as an opinion, partly because Mr. Ord, who had studied the 

 subject, thought otherwise, and especially because we had 

 no specimen of Ph. hypirboreus to compare with the Ph. Wil- 

 jonii to establish the fact beyond the possibility of doubt. 

 Having <ince had the good fortune to obtain two North Ame- 

 rican specimens of the true Ph. hyperboreus, we have had the 

 pleasure to find our conjectures perfectly well grounded, and 

 thus to add a third species of Phalaropas to the Ornithology 



