96 GREY PHALAROPE. 
rump, the feathers, edged with bright yellow ochre; wings, 
pale cinereous, some of the lesser coverts edged with white, 
the greater coverts largely so, forming the bar; primaries and 
tail, black; the latter edged with yellowish brown, the shafts 
of the former white; bill and feet, as in the first described. 
On the 20th of March 1818, I shot, in the river St John, 
in Hast Florida, an immature female specimen; irides, dark 
brown ; around the base of the bill, a slight marking of dark 
slate ; front and crown, white, mottled with pale ash; at the 
interior part of each eye, a black spot ; beneath the eyes, dark 
slate, which extends over the auriculars, the hind head, and 
upper part of the neck; upper parts, cinereous grey, with a 
few faint streaks of slate ; throat, breast, whole lower parts, 
and under tail-coverts, pure white; flanks, with a few faint 
ferruginous stains; wings, slate brown, the coverts of the 
secondaries, and a few of the primary coverts, largely tipt with 
white, forming the bar as usual ; tail, brown, edged with cine- 
reous; legs and feet, pale plumbeous; the webs, and part of 
the scalloped membranes, yellowish; bill and size as in the 
first specimen. 
The tongue of this species is large, fleshy, and obtuse. 
This bird has been described under a variety of names. 
What could induce that respectable naturalist, M. Temminck, 
to give it a new appellation, we are totally at a loss to conceive. 
That his name (Phalaropus platyrhinchus) is good,—that it is 
even better than all the rest, we are willing to admit,—but 
that he had no right to give it a new name we shall boldly 
maintain, not only on the score of expediency, but of justice. 
If the right to change be once conceded, there is no calculating 
the extent of the confusion in which the whole system of 
nomenclature will be involved. The study of methodical 
natural history is sufficiently laborious, and whatever will have 
a tendency to diminish this labour, ought to meet the cordial 
support of all those who are interested in the advancement of 
the natural sciences. 
“The study of natural history,” says the present learned 

