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Genus PHALAROPUS. 



Phalaropus, Brisson, Orn. vi. p. 12 (1760). 

 Tringa apud Linnseus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 249 (1766). 

 Crymophihis apud Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. viii. p. 521 (1817). 

 Lobipes apud J. Ross in Ross's Voy. 8vo, ii. App. p. 167 (1819). 



This genus contains only two species, both of which inhabit the Western Palsearctic Region, 

 being found also in the Nearctic Region and in the northern portions of the Oriental and 

 Nearctic Regions. A third species, Steganopus ivilsoni, is found in the Nearctic and Neotropical 

 Regions ; but this species has been separated generically from our Phalaropes. 



The Phalaropes frequent the sea-coast and lochs, both inland and near the sea-coast, though 

 more frequently the latter. They are habitually tame and confiding to a degree. They walk 

 with almost as much ease as any of the true Sandpipers, and swim with great facility, sitting 

 very buoyantly on the water, and are said occasionally to dive. They feed on worms, small 

 crustacea, and aquatic insects of various kinds, and usually pick up their food on the edges of 

 pools, or else obtain it on the surface of the water when swimming. Their flight closely 

 resembles that of the Dunlin. They breed on the shores of lochs close to the edge of the water, 

 their nests being deep, cup-shaped, and constructed of grass-bents and aquatic herbage ; and their 

 eggs, four in number, are dull ochreous, or ochreous brown, spotted and blotched with dark dull 

 brown or blackish brown. 



Phalaropus fuHcarius, the type of the genus, has the bill rather longer than the head, 

 slender, nearly straight, rather broader than high at the base, flattened towards the tip, which is 

 gradually rounded and obtuse ; nasal groove extending beyond the middle of the bill ; nostrils 

 oblong, basal, with an elevated margin ; wings long, pointed, the first quill longest, the inner 

 secondaries nearly as long as the primaries, and tapering ; tail moderate, rounded ; legs slender, 

 rather short, the tibia bare for some distance ; tarsus short, compressed, anteriorly scutellate, 

 posteriorly thin-edged ; hind toe small, anterior toes moderate, laterally margined with a lobed 

 membrane ; claws small, arched, compressed, rather acute. 



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