196 
GREY PHALAROPE. 
barely touching the ground ; bill, reddish orange at the base, 
the remainder black, an inch long; front and crown, black? 
barred transversely with lines of white ; throat, sides of the 
neck, and lower parts, white, thickly and irregularly barred 
with curving dashes of reddish chocolate ; upper parts, of a 
deep cinereous blue, streaked with brownish yellow and black ; 
the back scapulars, broadly edged with brownish yellow ; wings 
and rump, dark cinereous ; greater wing-coverts, broadly tipt 
with white, forming a large band ; primaries, nearly black, and 
crossed with white below their coverts ; tail, plain olive, mid- 
dle of its coverts black, their sides bright brownish yellow; 
vent, white, those feathers immediately next to the tail, red- 
dish chocolate, legs, black on the outside, yellowish within. 
Length nine inches, breadth fifteen inches and a half ; length 
of hind toe, independent of the claw, one-eighth of an inch. 
Male. The inner toe is connected to the middle one by a 
membrane as far as the first joint, the outer toe much farther; 
hence the feet may be properly termed semipalmate ; webs 
and lobes, finely pectinated. This conformation of the feet is 
pretty accurately exhibited in Edwards’s plate. No. 308. The 
grey phalarope is a rare bird in Pennsylvania, and is not often 
met with in any part of the United States. The individual 
from which our description was taken, was shot in a pond, in 
the vicinity of Philadelphia, in the latter part of May, 1812. 
There were three in company. The person who shot it had 
never seen one of the species before, and was struck with their 
bears a strong resemblance to the knots and godwits, &c. It will show an ex- 
ample of the genus Phalaropus, indeed it is the only one hitherto discovered.* 
The form appeal’s more stout, from the shortness of the legs, and it is also dis- 
tinguished from Lobipes by the flattened or depressed bill, and more than usually 
■fleshy tongue. They are expert swimmers, are often found out at sea, and their 
whole manners on the water resemble more those of a truly aquatic bird than 
of a form allied to the Tringa. Bonaparte mentions, that this bird is rare and 
accidental, and during winter only found in the United States extending its mi- 
grations to Florida Ed. 
^ Dr Richardson thinks that another species will be found in the plain Phalarope of Pen- 
nant, and proposes the name of P. glacialis for it.—Eu. 
