GREY PHALAROPE. 
197 
singular manners. He described them as swimming actively 
near the margin of the pond, dipping in their bill very often, 
as if feeding, and turning frequently. In consequence of our 
specimen being in a state of putridity when received, it was 
preserved with considerable difficulty, and the sex could not 
be ascertained. 
In the spring of the year 1816, my friend, Mr Le Sueur, 
shot, in Boston Bay, a young individual of this species. Crown, 
dark slate, tinged with yellowish brown ; front, throat, line 
over the eye, belly, and vent, white ; shoulders, breast, and 
sides, tawny or fawn colour; back, dark slate, paler near the 
rump, the feathers edged with bright yellow ochre ; wings, 
pale cinereous, 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 the 20th of March, 1818, I shot, in the river St .lolin, 
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 
interior 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 grey, wuth 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 tipt with 
white, forming the bar as usual ; tail, brown, edged with cine- 
reous ; 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. 
This bird has been described under a variety of names. What 
could induce that respectable naturalist, M. Teniminck, to give 
it a new appellation, we are totally at a loss to conceive. That 
his name {Phalaropus platyrhinclius) is good, — that it is, even 
