GRAY PHALAROPE. 
236 
around the base of the bill a slight marking of dark slate ; front and 
crown white, mottled with pale ash ; at the anterior 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 gray, 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 tipped with 
white, forming the bar as usual ; tail brown, edged with cinereous ; 
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. 
A reference to the head of this article will show the variety of 
names under which this bird has been described. What could in- 
duce that respectable naturalist, M. Temminck, to give it a new 
appellation, we are totally at a loss to conceive. That his name 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 main- 
tain, 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 in- 
volved ; the study of methodical natural history is sufficiently labo- 
rious, and whatever will have a tendency to diminish this labour 
ouo'ht 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 pres- 
ident of the Linnean society, “is, from the multitude of objects 
with which it is conversant, necessarily so encumbered with names, 
that students require every possible assistance to facilitate the at- 
tainment of those names, and have a just right to complain of ev- 
ery needless impediment. Nor is it allowable to alter such names, 
even for the better. In our science the names established through- 
