GRAY PHALAROPE. 
201 
the feathers edged with bright yellow ochre; wings pale cine- 
reous, 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 tbe 20th of March, 1818, I shot in the river St. John, in 
East 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 anterior part of 
each eye a black spot; beneath the eyes dark slate, which ex- 
tends 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 induce 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 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 metho- 
dical natural history is sufficiently laborious, and whatever will 
have a tendency to diminish this labour, ought to meet the cor- 
dial support of all those who are interested in the advancement 
of the natural sciences. 
“The study of Natural history,” says the present learned 
president of the Linnean society, “is, from the multitude of 
VOL. III. — D d 
