GRAY PHALAROPE. OQl 



the feathers edged with bright yellow ochre; wings pale cine- 

 reous, some of the lesser coverts edged with white, the greater 

 coverts largely so, forming the bar; primaries and tail black, 

 the latter edged with yellowish brown, the shafts of the former 

 white. Bill and feet as in the first described. 



On the 20th of March, 1818, I shot in the river St. John, in 

 East Florida, an immature female specimen: irides dark brown; 

 around the base of the bill a slight marking of dark slate; front 

 and crown white, mottled with pale ash ; at the anterior part of 

 each eye a black spot; beneath the eyes dark slate, which ex- 

 tends over the auriculars, the hind-head, and upper part of the 

 neck; upper parts cinereous gray, with a few faint streaks of 

 slate; throat, breast, whole lower parts, and under tail-coverts, 

 pure white; flanks with a few faint ferruginous stains; wings 

 slate brown, the coverts of the secondaries, and a few of the 

 primary coverts, largely tipped with white, forming the bar as 

 usual; tail brown, edged with cinereous; legs and feet pale 

 plumbeous, the webs, and part of the scalloped membranes, 

 yellowish. Bill and size as in the first specimen. 



The tongue of this species is large, fleshy and obtuse. 



A reference to the head of this article will show the variety 

 of names under which this bird has been described. What 

 could induce that respectable naturalist, M. Temminck, to give 

 it a new appellation, we are totally at a loss to conceive. That 

 his name is good, that it is even better than all the rest, we are 

 willing to admit; but that he had no right to give it a new name, 

 we shall boldly maintain, not only on the score of expediency, 

 but of justice. If the right to change be once conceded, there 

 is no calculating the extent of the confusion in which the whole 

 system of nomenclature will be involved. The study of metho- 

 dical natural history is sufficiently laborious, and whatever will 

 have a tendency to diminish this labour, ought to meet the cor- 

 dial support of all those who are interested in the advancement 

 of the natural sciences. 



"The study of Natural history," says the present learned 

 president of the Linnean society, "is, from the multitude of 



VOL. in. D d 



