WILSON'S PHALAROPE. 301 



Ohio flew in the manner of the Common Snipe, proceeding at first in an 

 undulating or zigzag line, but more steadily after reaching a certain elevation, 

 when they came pretty close together, wheeled a few times, and alighted 

 again near the same shallow pools. 



Dr. Richardson, who found this species breeding on the Saskatchewan, 

 says "it lays two or three eggs among the grass on the margins of small 

 lakes: they are very obtuse at one end, taper much at the other, and have a 

 colour intermediate between yellowish-grey and cream-yellow, interspersed 

 with small roundish spots and a few larger blotches of umber-brown, more 

 crowded at the obtuse end. The eggs measure sixteen lines and a half in 

 length and eleven across." 



I observed scarcely any difference in the colouring of the sexes, the female 

 being merely larger than the male. 



Grey Phalarope, Phalaropus lobatus, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. ix. p. 72. 

 Phalaropcs Wilsonii, Bonap. Syn., p. 342. 



Wilson's Phalarope, Phalaropus Wilsonii, Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. iv. p. 59. 

 Phalaropus Wilsonii, Wilson's Phalarope, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. 



p. 405. 

 American Phalarope, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 245. 

 Wilson's Phalarope, Phalaropus Wilsonii, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 400. 



Adult, 10, 17^. 



Procured in Kentucky, New Jersey, and Boston. Breeds abundantly on 

 the Rocky Mountains. Saskatchewan river. Winters in Mexico. 



Adult Male. 



Bill long, very slender, flexible, flattened towards the end. Upper man- 

 dible with the dorsal line straight, the ridge flattened, the sides at the base 

 sloping, but towards the end nearly horizontal, the edges obtuse, the tip nar- 

 row. Nasal groove linear, long; nostrils basal, linear, pervious. Lower 

 mandible with the angle very long and extremely narrow, the sides slightly 

 convex, the tip narrowed. 



Head small, with the fore part high and rounded; eyes of moderate size. 

 Neck rather long and slender. Body slender. Feet rather long, slender; 

 tibia bare a considerable way above the joint; tarsus extremely compressed, 

 narrowed before, very thin behind, covered anteriorly with numerous 

 scutella, posteriorly with two series of scutella meeting with a sharp edge; 

 toes slender, first very small, free, with a slight membrane beneath, second 

 slightly shorter than fourth, third considerably longer; all scutellate above, 

 margined on both sides with narrow, slightly lobed, crenate membranes, 

 which are united at the base so as to form short webs, of which the outer is 

 longer. Claws very small, compressed, arched, that of the middle toe with 

 the inner edge sharp. 



Vol. V. 43 



