OQ6 BROWN PHALAROPE. 



rences, Edwards's No. 308, and Brisson's No. 1, which gave 

 rise to Gmelin's confusion of synonymes, and a consequent con- 

 fusion in his description, as the essential character in both au- 

 thors being in nearly the same words, (rostro subulato, apice in- 

 flexo, fyc. ) we are at no loss to infer that both descriptions have 

 reference to the same bird; and we are certain that the lobata of 

 the twelfth edition of the former is precisely the same as that 

 of the tenth edition, which cites for authority Edwards's 46 and 

 143, as before mentioned. 



I shall now give the short description of the bird figured in 

 the plate, as I find it in Wilson's note book. 



Bill black, slender, and one inch and three-eights* in length -, 

 lores, front, crown, hind-head, and thence to the back, very 

 pale ash, nearly white; from the anterior angle of the eye a 

 curving stripe of black descends along the neck for an inch or 

 more; thence to the shoulders dark reddish brown, which also 

 tinges the white on the side of the neck next to it; under parts 

 white; above dark olive; wings and legs black. Size of the Turn- 

 stone. 



The specimen from which the following description was tak- 

 en, was kindly communicated to me by my friend, Mr. Titian 

 R. Peale, while it was yet in a recent state, and before it was 

 prepared for the museum. It was this individual which enabled 

 me to ascertain the species figured in our plate. It was shot 

 in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, on the seventh of May, 

 1818. 



Bill narrow, slender, flexible, subulate, of equal width; nos- 

 trils basal and linear; lobes of the toes thick, narrow, and but 

 slightly scalloped ; outer toe connected to the middle one as far 



* In the original the bill is said to be one inch and three-quarters long, 

 but that this is a mistake, we have only to measure the bill of the figure, 

 drawn of half the size of nature, to be convinced, Wilson always mea 

 sured his bills from the tip to the angle of the mouth. Our figure, by this 

 admeasurement, indicates a bill of precisely the length of that of Peale's spe- 

 cimen, which I have described in detail. 



