WILSON'S PHALAROPE. 359 



other small animals that are found in the water. They are strictly 

 monogamous, and are generally seen in pairs, carrying fidelity to an 

 extreme : delighting in their peculiar element, they even copulate on 

 the sea, and reluctantly leave it to build their nest on shore, among 

 grasses : they lay from four to six eggs, which both sexes incubate, the 

 male being even more strongly marked on the belly by the naked places 

 which this causes : they share between them all the parental duties, and 

 the young leave the nest, run about and swim as soon as they are 

 hatched. The Phalaropes are hardly ever seen on dry ground, where, 

 however, they walk and run swiftly, without the embarrassment of some 

 other birds of less aquatic propensities. Though certainly the smallest 

 of swimmers, they perform this operation with great dexterity, resisting 

 the heaviest waves, or rising over their top, but are never known to 

 dive : they notwithstanding swim with perfect ease, when they have all 

 the appearance of a miniature Duck, with their head carried close to 

 their back. While swimming they dip their bill often in the water, fre- 

 quently turning round, with much elegance in all their motions. Their 

 flight is rapid. Their flesh is oily and unpalatable. 



The abode of these diminutive swimmers is the arctic and polar re- 

 gions, to which their thick coat of feathers is well adapted. Hence 

 they migrate in autumn to the temperate regions of both continents, 

 where they are also seen in spring. They are essentially arctic birds, 

 and breed in the most northern parts of the world, and although they 

 retire more to the south in winter, yet their visits to our temperate 

 climates are rare and casual. From such a combination of traits as are 

 above related it will be evident that though much restricted in the 

 number of species the Phalaropes are entitled to a conspicuous rank in 

 classification. They can only be compared with the allied genera 

 Hirriantopus and Becurvirostra, and we see how materially they difi'er 

 from them. They may be said to connect the Scolopacidce with the 

 Laridce, forming a beautiful link between the order of "Waders and that 

 of the Web-footed birds. 



Our subgenus Rolopodius, which resembles Lohipes in the bill, while 

 Crymophilus resembles it in the feet, is furnished with a long, very 

 slender, smooth, flexible, and cylindrical bill, of equal breadth through- 

 out, subulate to the tip, with the point narrow, sharp, and slightly 

 curved : the nostrils are quite basal, and linear-elongated : the tongue 

 is filiform and acute. The tarsi are elongated, and much compressed, 

 in which it comes nearer to the Anseres, and compensates for the other 

 traits which remove it farther from them than the other Phalaropes. 

 Thus do we find ourselves baffled in all attempts at a regularly sym- 

 metrical or mathematical arrangement. Nature acknowledges no artificial 

 nor contracted limits. The toes are long, and by no means semipal- 

 mated, the outer being connected to the middle only as far as the first 



