202 ALLEN S NATURALISTS LIBRARY, 



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

 membrane narrow, and scarcely scalloped. 



Only one species, peculiar to America, is known, 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 abroad 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 denned 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 



