360 WILSON'S PHALAROPE. 



joint, and the inner almost divided ; the bordering membrane narrow 

 and subentire; the hind toe long, and resting on the ground. The 

 ■wings are long, even for the genus, and the tertials very long, reaching 

 nearly to the tip of the primaries when the wings are closed. The tail 

 is moderate, being neither so long as in Grymophilus, nor so short as 

 that of Lohipes. The general form is slender, and together ^ith the 

 bill and other traits, gives this bird a strong resemblance to the Totani, 

 a bare analogy, however, which we should not with Cuvier mistake for 

 affinity. 



The American or Wilson's Phalarope has been so well described from 

 the recent specimen, by Mr. Ord, as not to be susceptible of improve- 

 ment, and the following description is merely intended to elucidate our 

 figure, which represents of the natural size a beautiful female in the 

 perfect plumage of spring. This individual was nine and a half inches 

 long and sixteen in extent of wings. The form of the bill we have 

 described above : it is black, and more than an inch and a quarter long, 

 though only a line in thickness : the irides are dark brown. The upper 

 part of the head is of a bluish delicate pale ash color, the hind head 

 and that part of the neck adjoining it are whitish ; a white stripe passes 

 over the eye, and beneath it is a spot of the same color : a large curving 

 band of black includes the eye and spreads out towards the nucha, 

 descending a good space down the neck, and gradually passes into a 

 reddish brown, which becomes the color of the sides of the neck ; this 

 tint deepens into bright chestnut on the back part of the neck, and 

 descends on each side, thus mingling with the plumage of the back and 

 scapulars, which are dark ash, each feather slightly tipped with whitish : 

 the upper tail-coverts are ash color. The throat and sides of the head 

 to the black mark, and all beneath, including the lower tail-coverts, are 

 pure white, somewhat tinged with rufous on the lower part of the neck 

 beneath. The wings are five inches long, and in color dark ash, larger 

 coverts and secondaries very slightly edged with white, under coverts 

 white, most of the smaller wing-coverts being marked with ferruginous : 

 the upper tail feathers are tinged with reddish at their tips, and the 

 under marked with white on their inner webs. The feet are dark plum- 

 beous ; the claws of a dark horn color, the naked part of the tibia is 

 nearly an inch long, the tarsus more than one inch and a quarter, and 

 sharpish ; the middle toe without the nail is scarcely one inch, and the 

 remarkably long hind toe five sixteenths without the nail. 



There are fewer variations caused in this Phalarope than in the others 

 by sex and season : the young however is surprisingly diflFerent, for 

 which reason we have figured it also of the full size. The bill is like 

 that of the adult, somewhat gaping beyond the middle : the face is 

 whitish mixed with dusky, and with a dusky stripe from the bill to the 

 eye : the crown, neck above, back and wings are dusky brown, darke} 



