GRALLATORES. 405 



[171.] 1. Phalaropus Wilsonii. (Sabine.) Wilsons Phalarope. 



Genus, Phalaropus, Bitiss. 



Phalaropus Wilsonii (American Phalarope). Sab. Frarikl. Journ., p. 691. 



" Phalaropus lobatus. Ord, Wils. Orn., Ed. nov." Fide Bonap.* 



Phalaropus frenatus. Vieil. Gal., pi. 271. 



Phalarope lissere (Ph. firnbriatus). Temm. Col. PI. 370 -|-. 



Phalaropus (Holopodius) Wilsonii. Bonap. Lye. N. York, ii., p. 159 ; Syn., No. 279. 



Lobipes incanus. Jard. & Selby, III. of Orn ; young. 



Plate lxix. 



This elegant Phalerope breeds on the Saskatchewan ; but was not seen by us 

 beyond the fifty-fifth parallel, nor on the coast of Hudson's Bay. It is not 

 uncommon on the borders of the lakes adjoining the city of Mexico, from whence 

 Mr. Swainson has received both young 1 and adult specimens. 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. This bird ap- 

 proaches nearest to Phalaropus hyperboreus in the form of its bill. Its legs and 

 toes, however, are longer ; and the latter are more narrowly bordered and con- 

 nected by shorter webs ; the hind toe, likewise, is longer ; and all the nails are 

 longer and more pointed ;— peculiarities of structure which seem to fit it more 

 for walking on the surface of marshes filled with sphagna, than for exercising 

 the full powers of natation possessed by the Ph. hyperboreus and platyrhyn- 

 chus. It has, hov. ver, the compact and thick under plumage of these Phale- 

 ropes, which distinguishes them so readily from the Tringw. We, unfortunately , 

 had no opportunity of studying the habits of this interesting species, and of 

 contrasting them with those of its congeners. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a female, killed on the Saskatchewan, 21 June, 1827- 



Colour. — Crown of the head and lores pearl-grey ; medial stripe on the neck greyish- 

 white. Dorsal plumage, wings, and tail broccoli-brown ; shaft of the primaries umber- 

 brown, the first one nearly white ; lesser quills and their coverts slightly edged with white. 

 Sides of the neck rich chestnut-brown, which is continued in a stripe over the shoulders, 



* The Prince of Musignano refers also to the Ph. lobatus of Ord (Wils., first ed., pi. 73, f. 2), as a representation of 

 this bird ; but surely such an erroneous and imperfect account, confessedly compiled from partially obliterated notes 

 and an unfinished sketch, does not deserve to be quoted, — notwithstanding that the specimen from which they were 

 taken proves on examination to be this species. — R. 



■f We know not for what reason M. Temminck has changed the name of this species, long before consecrated to the 

 memory of the great American ornithologist. The figure in the PL Col. is very incorrect : the bill is represented as 

 much arched, and the regularity of the lateral rufous bands cannot be traced. — Sw. 



