92 BROWN PHALAROPE. 
it was prepared for the museum. It was this individual which 
enabled me to ascertain the species figured by Wilson. It 
was shot in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, on the 7th of 
May 1818. 
Bill, narrow, slender, flexible, subulate, of equal width ; 
nostrils, basal, and linear; lobes of the toes, thick, narrow, 
and but slightly scalloped. Outer toe connected to the middle 
one as far as the first joint; inner toe divided nearly to its 
base ; hind toe resting on the ground. Bill, black, one inch 
and three-eighths in length ; head above, of an ash grey; hind 
head, whitish, which colour extends a short distance down the 
neck ; over the eyes, a white stripe, below them, a white spot ; 
throat and lower parts, white; a line of black passes through 
the eyes, spreads out towards the hind head, and descends 
along the neck; lower part of the neck, pale ferruginous ; 
back part of the neck, deep ferruginous, which descends on 
each side, and mingles with the plumage of the back and 
scapulars, which are of a clove brown, the feathers tipt with 
whitish ; wings and tail, dark clove brown, some of the lesser 
coverts having a reddish tinge ; the upper tail-feathers, tinged 
with red at their tips, the under feathers marked with white 
on their inner webs ; irides, dark brown; legs and feet, dark 
plumbeous ; claws, long, of a dark horn colour ; hind toe, in- 
dependent of the claw, five-sixteenths of an inch long; the 
tertials, when the wing is closed, extend to within three-eighths 
of an inch of the tip of the primaries; weight, an ounce and 
three-quarters; length, nine inches and a half; breadth, six- 
teen inches. This was a female; her eggs very small. 
In the grand chain of animated nature, the phalaropes con- 
stitute one of the links between the waders and the web-footed 
tribes, having the form of the sandpipers, with some of the 
habits of the gulls; the scalloped membranes on their toes 
enabling them to swim with facility. They are clothed with 
a thick coat of feathers, beneath which, as in the ducks, lies a 
mass of down, to protect them from the rigours of the northern 
climates, of which they are natives. They do not appear to 
be fond of the neighbourhood of the ocean, and are generally 
