230 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



homogeneous group, characterized by the bright rufous color of the head, and of the greater 

 part of the inferior surface of the body. It is scarcely distinguishable, except by size, from G. 

 cayennensis, (PL Enl. 368,) a South American bird. G. fasciata, Raffles, which is G. euryzona, 

 Temminck, is another similar and strictly congeneric species. 



Specimens in the collection are from Hakodadi. The most adult are exactly as represented in 

 the plate in Fauna Japonica, cited above. Another specimen, probably a female, has scarcely 

 a trace of tbe handsome rufous-lilac of the breast and head, those parts being of the same olive- 

 brown of the upper parts. 



"Eyes deep orange. — Hakodadi, May, 1854." 



Mr. Heine observes : 



" Two specimens only of this bird were obtained, in a marshy place on the northwestern part 

 of the bay of Hakodadi, and were the only ones of the kind seen. They hide themselves in the 

 close cover of the reeds, from which, in this instance, they were raised by some dogs belonging 

 to a Japanese soldier. On account of their short wings, they flew slowly and but for a short 

 distance." 



HTATICULA, ? 



A small species not given by Messrs. Temminck and Schlegel in Fauna Japonica. One spe- 

 cimen only is in the collection, which is in young plumage, and quite impossible to determine. 

 It is about the size of H. cantiana, and much resembles it, but has the bill rather longer. 



"Hakodadi, May, 1854 ; eye black." 



PHALAROPUS HYPERBOREUS, Linnaius. 



Tringa hyperboreus, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, p. 249, (1766.) 



Phalaropus ruficollis, Pallas Zoog. Rosso-Asia. II, p. 203, (1811.) 



Phalaropus cinerascens, Pallas. 



Tringa fusca, Gin. Syst. Nat. II, p. 675, (1788.) 



The Northern phalarope. 



Audubon B. of Am., pi. 254; Oct. ed. V, pi. 340. Gould B. of Eur. IV, pi. 336. 



This handsome and interesting little bird is apparently a wanderer over the temperate regions 

 of the entire northern hemisphere, frequenting usually the shores of the ocean, but sometimes 

 ascending rivers and other streams of fresh water. Having the general appearance and 

 many of the habits of the sandpipers, (Tringce,) it differs from them in fearlessly alighting 

 in the water and swimming with much ease and swiftness, thus showing an affinity to the 

 swimming birds, indicated antecedently by its lobed feet. This is the case also with other of its 

 congeners, though to our eye the present bird is the most graceful swimmer, and in the water 

 is quite at home. 



Specimens in the collection of the expedition obtained at Hakodadi are strictly identical with 

 others now before us from the Atlantic coast of the United States and Greenland. 



This bird is not given in Fauna Japonica by Messrs. Temminck and Schlegel, and is another 

 addition to the ornithology of Japan made by the present expedition. 



The following note by Mr. Heine relates to this species : 



" The first specimen of this graceful bird was obtained by Lieutenant Nicholson during tbe 

 survey of the bay of Hakodadi. Afterwards I met with several of them in the marshy plains 

 that surround the bay northward and westward. Tripping over the leaves of aquatic plants, or 



