GRAY PHALAROPE. 
133 
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, middle of its coverts 
black, their sides bright brownish yellow ; vent, white, 
those feathers immediately next to the tail, reddish 
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 gray 
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 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 conse- 
quence 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 Ba}% 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 
