GRAY PHALAROPE. 



be fond of the neighborhood of the ocean, and are generally found 

 in the interior, about the lakes, ponds and streams of fresh water^ 

 where they delight to linger, swimming near the margin in search 

 of seeds and insects. They go in pairs, and we cannot learn that 

 they are any where numerous. These circumstances are sufficient 

 to authorize their removal from a tribe, to which they have little 

 resemblance, except in their general appearance. Edwards was 

 the first naturalist who introduced them to the world ] and altho 

 he seems to have been convinced that they ought to constitute a 

 genus of themselves, yet he contented himself with arranging them 

 with the Tringaj a classification certainly neither scientific nor na- 

 tural. Turton has fallen into the same error, which Latham and 

 Pennant have judiciously avoided; and in their arrangement, so 

 agreeable to our sentiments of the obvious discriminations of Na- 

 ture, we heartily concur. 



The bill of this species is black, slender, straight, and one 

 inch and three quarters in length \ lores, front, crown, hind head 

 and thence to the back very pale ash, nearly white; from the an- 

 terior angle of the eye a curving stripe of black descends along the 

 neck for an inch or more ; thence to the shoulders dark reddish 

 brown, which also tinges the white on the side of the neck next 

 it; under parts white; above dark olive; wings and legs black; 

 the scalloped membranes on the toes finely serrated on their edges. 

 Size of the Turn-stone. 



The above description I am convinced is imperfect ; but as 

 I have not an opportunity of seeing the bird, no better can be ob- 

 tained. 



Pennant says that the Gray Phalarope inhabits Scandinavia, 

 Iceland and Greenland : in the last lives on the frozen side, near 

 the great lakes ; quits the country before winter ; is seen on the 

 full seas in April and September, in the course of its migration. 

 It is frequent in all Siberia, about the lakes and rivers, especially 



VOL. IX. T 



