Plate CCLV. Male and Female in summer. Male in winter.
In summer, the bill greenish-yellow, black at the point; feet pale
green; upper part of head black; loral space and chin blackish-grey;
sides of head, and a band round the occiput, white; sides and fore
part of neck, breast, abdomen, and lower tail-coverts deep orange-red;
fore part of back, scapulars, and inner secondaries, black, the
feathers edged with whitish; wing-coverts deep ash-grey; quills dark
greenish-brown, their shafts and basal parts white; the ends of the
secondary and primary coverts, and the basal part of the outer webs of
the primaries white, forming a band of that colour on the wing; upper
tail-coverts orange-red; tail deep grey, darker towards the end,
slightly tipped with reddish. Female in summer with the upper part
variegated with light red and brownish-black, the central part of each
feather being of the latter colour; the upper tail-coverts entirely of
the former; tail deep grey, as in the male; lower parts of a less pure
red, being paler, and tinged with grey. In winter the bill nearly
black, upper and fore part of head, fore part and sides of neck,
breast, abdomen, lower and lateral upper tail-coverts, with a band
across the wing, white; a brownish-black line from the eye to the
occiput, which is of the same colour, as well as in the middle of the
hind neck; back, scapulars, and inner secondaries, ash-grey.
_Adult_, 7-1/2, 13.
Occasionally in flocks in Kentucky, on the Ohio, during autumn often
at sea on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Breeds in high northern
latitudes, as far as Melville Peninsula. Stragglers at times reach as
far south as New Jersey, but the route of this species toward warmer
regions, is along the Pacific coast.
Red Phalarope, Phalaropus hyperboreus, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. ix.
p. 75.
Phalaropus fulicarius, Bonap. Syn. p. 341.
Phalaropus fulicarius, Flat-billed Phalarope, Swains. & Rich.
F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 407.
Red Phalarope, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 236.
Red Phalarope, Phalaropus fulicarius, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii.
p. 404.
GENUS III. LOBIPES, Cuv. LOBEFOOT.
Bill at least as long as the head, extremely slender, straight, nearly
cylindrical, towards the end tapering; upper mandible with the dorsal
line straight, unless at the end, where it is a little decurved, the
ridge broad and depressed, the sides slightly sloping, the edges
rounded, and inflected towards the narrow acute tip; nasal groove
long, linear; lower mandible with the angle very long and narrow, the
sides convex, the tip narrowed. Head small, with the fore part high
and rounded; neck of moderate length; body rather slender. Feet
moderate, slender; tibia bare at the lower part; tarsus extremely
compressed, narrowed before and behind, covered anteriorly with
numerous scutella; toes slender, first extremely small, free, with a
slight membrane beneath, second slightly shorter than fourth; toes all
scutellate above, the anterior webbed at the base, and margined on
both sides with a lobed or sinuated membrane. Claws very small,
arched, compressed, acute. Plumage soft, and blended. Wings long and
pointed, the first quill longest; inner secondaries very long and
tapering; tail of twelve feathers rounded or nearly even. Tongue
extremely slender, grooved above, tapering to a horny point;
œsophagus narrow, uniform; stomach rounded, muscular, with the
epithelium dense and longitudinally rugous; intestine of moderate
length and width; cœca rather long. Trachea much flattened, with a
single pair of inferior laryngeal muscles.