WILSON'S PHALAROPE. 35'^ 



of their own countrymen, and after it had been already sanctioned by 

 strangers. 



That the LoMpes incanus is the young of this species, which any one 

 familiar with the changes of plumage of the Phalaropes might have sus- 

 pected, will, it is hoped, be placed beyond future question by the figure 

 we now give also of it. 



If the bill only were considered, this species might with some pro- 

 priety be united subgenerically with the P. hyperhoreus, but as by its 

 feet it differs considerably from both the other Phalaropes, which agree 

 in this particular, we have instituted for it a peculiar subgenus under 

 the name of Holopodius, which we regard as in all respects more essen- 

 tially different from the old groups' than they are from each other. In 

 what respect Mr. Sabine found this species, which he so well established, 

 intermediate between the two, we are at a loss to imagine. 



In fact, in Holopodius, so opposite to Cuvier's Lobipes both in name 

 and character, the toes have a narrow border formed by a subentire 

 membrane; the outer connected to the first joint only; the inner 

 almost cleft, and the hind toe long and resting on the ground : the two 

 other groups having the toes broadly bordered with a deeply scalloped 

 membrane and semipalmated : the hind toe is very short, the nail only 

 touching the ground. The Lobipes of Cuvier differs from the Crymo- 

 philus of Vieillot only in the shape of the bill, stout, flattened, and 

 carinated in the latter, slender and cylindrical in the former, as well as 

 in ours. 



Edwards first brought the Phalaropes into notice, and it was from his 

 works that Linnaeus and Brisson registered these singular birds in their 

 general works : the former, however, thrust them into that storehouse 

 of species, his Tringa, whilst the latter established for them the genus 

 Phalaropus, than which no group is more natural, and in our opinion 

 equivalent to a family. 



Latham and all modern authors have retained very properly this 

 genus in their systems. But if they are so far unanimous, they are 

 greatly at variance when they come to assign it a place, some referring 

 it to one order or family and some to another. That these birds belong 

 to the G-ralloe or Waders, though still more aquatic in their habits 

 even than some of the webfooted birds, does not in my opinion admit of 

 doubt. 



Before the recent discovery of the species now under consideration, 

 Phalaropus contained but two real species, out of which as many had 

 been formed as their changeable plumage exhibits phases, and what is 

 worse, the nominal species founded on the one had been confounded 

 with those taken from the other, and the different plumage of each 

 taken for varieties of its relative, so that not even the two real species 

 were accurately known apart ; though so different as to form each of 



