310 



SCOLOPACIDjE. 



SCOLOPAGIDJS. 



PHALAKOPUS FULICAKIUS (Linnaeus*). 



THE GREY PHALAKOPE. 



Phalaropus lobatus. 



PHALAROPUS, Brisson^. Beak rather long, weak, straight, depressed, and 

 blunt ; both mandibles grooved throughout their whole length ; the upper man- 

 dible slightly curved at the point. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval, with an elevated 

 margin. Legs rather short, slender, tarsus compressed ; three toes in front, one 

 behind ; the anterior toes furnished with an extension of the membrane laterally, 

 forming lobes slightly serrated at the edges, the hind toe small, and articulated 

 on the inner side of the tarsus. Wings long, pointed ; the first quill-feather the 

 longest. 



THIS pretty species, remarkable for the great difference of 

 its red appearance when in the plumage of summer, com- 



* Tringa fulicaria, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 249 (1766). 



t Ornithologie, vi. p. 12 (1760). The name originated in the resemblance of 

 the dilated and lobed membranes of the toes to those in the Coot <pdhapts a 

 Coot, and nods foot ; a structural resemblance which was probably a reason for 

 placing the Phalaropes next to the Rails in former Editions. 



