PHALAROPODID.dE — THE PHALAROPES. 
325 
Hab. Islands throughout the Pacific Ocean. Occasional or accidental on the coast of Alaska. 
Sp. Char. Adult: Tibia! and femoral plumes with their shafts lengthened into long, hair-like 
bristles ; crown dark sooty brown, divided longitudinally by a medial stripe of buff; a stripe of 
dusky aggregated streaks from bill to and behind the eye ; rest of the head, neck, and lower parts, 
buff, the cheeks, neck, and jugulum streaked with brown, the sides irregularly barred with the 
same ; axillars reddish buff, or dilute cinnamon, widely barred with dark brown. Upper parts 
sooty brown, coarsely spotted with buff. Rump nearly uniform dark brown ; upper tail-coverts 
and tail ochraceous-buff, the latter regularly barred with brown (the brown bars narrower than the 
interspaces), the coverts sometimes nearly immaculate, but usually irregularly marked with brown. 
“ Legs and feet dull livid blue ; iris hazel ; basal half of lower mandible dull dark flesh-color, rest 
of bill horn-black ” (Nelson, MS.). 
Total length, about 17.25 ; extent, 32.50 ; 1 wing, about 10.50 ; tail, 4.60 ; culmen, 3.65 ; tar- 
sus, 2.20 ; middle toe, 1.50. 
The single Alaskan specimen before us agrees with examples from the Sandwich Islands and 
Paumotu Group, but, being in more perfect feather, is somewhat deeper colored. 
This species was first described by Mr. Peale in 1848 from specimens obtained by 
the Wilkes Exploring Expedition at Vincennes Island, one of the Paumotu Group, in 
latitude 16° S., longitude, 144° W. A single male specimen was taken by Mr. 
Bischoff at Fort Kenai, Alaska, May 18, 1869, and is in the Collection of the Smith- 
sonian Institution. The occurrence of a bird, the habitat of which is presumed to 
be in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean, and distant some five thousand miles from 
Alaska, and in a tropical region — a locality so remote and so unlike its natural 
haunt — can only be regarded as being something purely accidental. The bird is 
said to bear a general resemblance to the N. Hudsonicus, but to be conspicuously dis- 
tinguishable by the rigid bristles that form the termination of the feathers of the 
upper portion of the tibiae. Except a slightly stronger ferruginous tint in the males, 
the two sexes were not distinguishable. They were abundant on an island of the 
Paumotu Group named Vincennes by the Expedition, were found in the month of 
September, and had become exceedingly fat by feeding on the berries of a species of 
Canthium, then very abundant. The birds were rather tame, and when flushed uttered 
a clear plaintive whistle. Beyond this we have no history of their habits, their 
manner of breeding not being known. 
Family PHALAEOPODID2E. — The Phalaeopes. 
Char. Small birds of Sandpiper-like appearance, but with very full, compact 
plumage like that of the Coots, Gulls, and Petrels ; the tarsus greatly compressed, 
and the toes partly webbed, as well as fringed by a lateral, sometimes scalloped, 
margin. 
The Plialaropes are small northern birds combining the habits, as well as to a cer- 
tain extent the appearance, of the Waders and Swimmers. The three known species 
belong to as many different genera, whose characters are as follows : — 
A. Bill flattened, broad, the nostrils sub-basal. 
1. Phalaropus. Web between outer and middle toes extending to beyond second joint of 
the latter ; lateral membrane of all the toes broad and deeply scalloped. 
1 Fresh measurements of No. 58471, <? ad. Fort Kenai, Alaska, May, 18, 1869 (F. Bischoff). 
