43-2 



PHALAROPE. 



(wherein a complete specific synopsis of the family is 

 published), are even still more extraordinary. The 

 DoHchoscclis Haworth'd of Hope, described and figured 

 in the last part of the Linnaean Transactions, covers 

 an area of at least six inches in diameter, whilst its 

 body is scarcely a fiftieth part of this extent. The 

 other principal genera are, Siro, Macrocodes, Trogu- 

 lus, Phalangium, and Obisium. There are numerous 

 British species belonging to the two last named ge- 

 nera. 'Ihe P. cornutnm, Linnaeus, being the male, 

 and the P. ujrilio the female of the typical species of 

 PAttlaneitttn. 



PHALAROPE (Phalampus). A genus of aquatic 

 birds, having, as the name implies, the toes furnished 

 with lobes. They are placed by Cuvier in the lon- 

 girostral family of Echas&iers ; but it is not very easy 

 to assign them a place in the system which will ex- 

 actly suit all their habits, because, though their feet 

 arc only lobed and not entirely webbed, they are very 

 expert swimmers, at the same time that they are dis- 

 cursive birds, and range to great distances. They are 

 not birds of large size, but they are expert walkers, 

 as well as good swimmers and fliers. Their generic 

 characters are : the bill long, slender, weak, straight, 

 and depressed at the' base ; the mandibles furrowed 

 for the whole length, and the tip of the upper man- 

 dible blunt and curling over the under, which is 

 pointed ; this structure of bill is not adapted for very 

 severe labour, and therefore we must suppose that 

 that the birds live upon small substances, though 

 they obtain them sometimes from the land and some- 

 times from the water ; the nostrils are in the sides of 

 the bill near its base, they stand out, and are sur- 

 rounded by a membrane ; the feet are of moderate 

 length, with the tarsi rather slender and compressed 

 laterally ; there are three toes to the front, all web- 

 bed as far as the first joint, and then furnished with 

 lobes for the remaining length, which are capable of 

 striking the water with very considerable force, and 

 yet of being much more easily recovered than feet 

 entirely webbed. The hind toe is short, turned in- 

 wards, and without any membrane ; the wings are of 

 moderate length, but rather pointed, and they are 

 clever birds and handsomely formed, but wild, and 

 devoted to free nature. Though there are two of 

 them that visit Britain in the winter, the one not 

 unfrequently, and the other very rarely, yet in sum- 

 mer they seek the extreme north ; and if we except 

 the fulmars, there are perhaps no birds which ap- 

 proach nearer to the poles. These species are the 

 red-necked phalarope and the grey phalarope. 



The Red-necked Phalarope (P. hypcrborcus). This 

 is a very handsome and clever bird, almost equally 

 expert at each of the three motions of running, swim- 

 ming, and flying. It is a discursive bird, migrating 

 northward in the summer, and southward in the 

 winter, in doing which it takes a very considerable 

 range. If we were to judge from the feet- only, we 

 should be disposed to say that the coot is the bird 

 which it most nearly resembles ; though the toes are 

 much shorter than those of the coot, and the lobes 

 upon them are smaller, and not so much divided. 

 When, however, we examine the bills, and the general 

 structure, we find a remarkable difference. The bill 

 of the coot is decidedly an aquatic bill ; and the form 

 of the bod}', and the articulation of the legs, are so 

 decidedly of a swimming character, that the bird is 

 a bad walker. True to its structure, the coot is found 

 only upon the waters, generally the fresh waters, and 



it does not range much. This phalarope, on the 

 other hand, though its form is that of a shore bird, 

 and its march is swift and graceful, while its habit 

 corresponds, as it finds its food, at least in the winter, 

 more upon land than in the witter. Notwithstanding 

 of this, the phalurope is by far the better swimmer of 

 the two, and, as we have said, the places of its swim- 

 ming and wintering are generally widely apart from 

 each other. It is true that the legs are not articulated 

 to the body, or the joints of the tarsi formed in that 

 manner which is the best adapted for a running bird, 

 because such a structure would be incompatible with 

 cxpertness as a swimmer. The phalarope has, how- 

 ever, less of the awkwardness of the swimmer in its 

 walk than any bird which can be named. Its body, 

 though light, is firm, well shouldered, and exactly oi 

 that shape which indicates a good flier. 



The following are the colours of the summer or 

 breeding plumage, in which, however, the bird very 

 rarely appears in this country : The back is black, 

 with reddish brown margins to the feathers ; the top 

 of the head, the hind-head, cheeks, and sides of the 

 breast, are ash ; there is a white bar across the wing, 

 and the upper tail-coverts are mottled with the same 

 colour ; the front and sides of the neck are reddish 

 brown ; and all the rest of the under part, and also 

 the skin, white, but with dusky brown spots on the 

 flanks. The female has the general plumage less 

 clear in the tints, and the brown on the neck much 

 paler, and spotted with ash-colour. In the winter 

 the time when the birds are seen in this country, the 

 black parts have become brown, the brown parl 

 pale buff, and the brown spots on the flanks arc 

 nearly obliterated. The young birds have the uppei 

 part mottled with white and reddish, and the undei 

 parts with pale ashen grey. When birds in theii 

 summer plumage, and also young birds, first began tc 

 be obtained from the northern countries where thej 

 breed, there was a good deal of confusion about the 

 species ; but the facts are now well ascertained, anc 

 the changes of plumage tend greatly to show that the 

 place which Cuvier has assigned to the phalaropes, ir 

 his arrangement of birds, is the right one. 



The Grey Phalarope (P. lobatus). There is a double 

 blunder in the naming of this bird and the last one 

 for this is the more northerly bird, and ought, on thai 

 account, to be called hyperboreus, if any of them is tc 

 get that name ; and the English epithet grey, applied 

 to this one, is the name of its winter colour ; whereas 

 if it is to be named from the colour at all, it ought tc 

 be named from the summer, or breeding plumage 

 because that is the livery of a bird when in its highesi 

 perfection. 



This phalarope is very rare in England, even ir 

 the winter ; and it is scarcely more common on tlu 

 shores of the northern and western isles of Scotland 

 Indeed, any specimen which does find its way hen 

 must be looked upon as a stray bird, which has Deer 

 beaten from the line of its regular migrations by the 

 violence of the winds. Birds which come in this wa) 

 do not come at a regular season, like the habitua 

 migrants, but are more likely to arrive in the autumr 

 than in the depth of winter ; because, when wintei 

 fairly sets in, their migration in their own locality ii 

 over they are comparatively at rest in their winter 

 quarters, anel not exposed to the winds. Such birds 

 are also much more likely to come to the southerly 

 parts of the country than to the northern. Accord, 

 ingly, specimens ha%e occurred in the southen 



