62 
WILSON’S PHALAROPE. 
birds in their general works: the former, however, thrust them 
into that storehouse of species, his Tringa, whilst the latter 
established for them the genus Phalaropus, than which no group is 
more natural, and in our opinion equivalent to a family. 
Latham and all modern authors have retained very properly 
this genus in their systems. But if they are so far unanimous, 
they are greatly at variance when they come to assign it a place, 
some referring it to one order or family and some to another. 
That these birds belong to the Gr alias or Waders, though still 
more aquatic in their habits even than some of the webfooted 
birds, does not in my opinion admit of doubt. 
Before the recent discovery of the species now under considera¬ 
tion, Phalaropus contained but two real species, out of which as 
many had been formed as their changeable plumage exhibits 
phases, and what is worse, the nominal species founded on the 
one had been confounded with those taken from the other, and 
the different plumage of each taken for varieties of its relative, so 
that not even the two real species were accurately known apart; 
though so different as to form each of them the type of a 
peculiar group, in the same manner as we have observed is the 
case with the P. ivilsonii. They are found in the north of both 
continents, the present being peculiar to America, which possesses 
them all. Cuvier, losing sight of the strong common tie that con¬ 
nects the Phalaropes, has separated his two groups, Phalaropus and 
Lobipes, and has placed the one near Tringa and the other near 
Totanus , on account of the analogy of the bill, regarding the 
Phalaropus as a pinnate-footed Tringa , and the Lobipes as a pinnate¬ 
footed Totanus. Vieillot, in adopting these groups as genera, 
placed them adjoining each other in a separate family, but he 
changed Cuvier’s names into Crymophilus and Phalaropus , trans¬ 
posing the latter name to the other group, the Lobipes of Cuvier. 
All the three known Phalaropes as distinguished by a moderate. 
