260 ORALLY. 



most readily associate the phalaropes, is the pigeon.* The legs 

 are, indeed, placed farther backward and wider of each other 

 than in birds which do not require to swim, and the joints of 

 the upper part of the leg are more bent ; but the bending is 

 more at the articulation of the tibia, so that the tarsus is 

 more perpendicular and free, and the bird can run, a motion 

 which birds constructed and using their legs like the coot are 

 not very well qualified for performing. This bird combines 

 rapid flight with the operations of running and swimming, 

 and it accordingly has the body of a bird of flight. The 

 peculiarities of structure which best adapt a bird for the per- 

 formance of all these operations, we shall perhaps find a more 

 appropriate occasion for noticing afterwards. 



The length of the bird is eight inches, the breadth four- 

 teen, the bill is about one inch long, slender, straight the 

 greater part of its length, but bent a little at the tip. The 

 crown of the head, nape, cheeks, and sides of the breast, ash 

 colour ; the back black, with rusty brown margins to the 

 feathers ; a white bar across the wing, and white mottlings 

 on the upper tail coverts ; the chin white ; the front and 

 sides of the neck reddish brown ; the rest of the under part 

 white, with dusky brown spots on the sides and flanks ; feet 

 and bill dusky, with a greenish tinge. This is the breeding 

 plumage of the males. The female has the reddish brown less 

 bright, and broken by patches of ash colour. In winter, 

 the black fades to brown, the brown to pale buff, and the 

 spots on the sides become obscure. The young are mottled 

 brown and reddish above, and white and pale ash grey on the 

 under part. The bird thus follows, in the changes of its 

 plumage, the law of those other birds of the order which it 

 most nearly resembles, while the rails and coots follow the 



* This is a most fanc'ful association ; but we will not waste time in 

 discussing so palpable an error. M. 



