462 HIMANTOPUS NIGRICOLLIS, BLACK-NECKED STILT. 



Avocets and Stilts correspond with each other iu habits as closely as 

 they do in form. One of the most marked physical differences is found 

 in the structure of the feet. Avocets have a hind toe, which the Stilts 

 have not, and their feet are almost completely Avebbed, so that they are 

 among the best swimmers of the long-legged fraternity. Stilts, on the 

 contrary, scarcely swim at all, and never except on an emergency. 

 When the Avocets are wading about, it often happens that they get be- 

 yond their depth, when, instead of rising on wing, they keep on as if 

 nothing had happened to take them off their feet. If they are wounded, 

 they sometimes escape by diving as well as swimming. 



It is scarcely necessary to proceed further with the history of a bird 

 whose general habits are already known through several earlier biogra- 

 l)hies. Wilson has written an excellent account, upon which Xuttall's 

 is in a great measure modeled. Audubon's history is specially good ; at 

 once complete, accurate, and full of interest. Nothing so good as his 

 model piece of biography, chiefly taken up with an account of a pair of 

 birds he watched near Vincenues, Indiana, has been written on this 

 subject. 



An egg which I took from the oviduct of an Avocet killed near Fort 

 Lyons, on the Arkansas, is the shortest and comparatively thickest of 

 a dozen now before me, measuring only 1,80 by 1.37. It was, however, 

 perfectly formed and just ready to be laid, as shown by the perfection 

 of the markings. Other specimens run up to 2.10 in length by 1.44 in 

 breadth. One of the longest specimens is also the narrowest — 2.10 by 

 only 1.25. This is one of a set of three taken by Mr. Ridgway at Soda 

 Lake, near Carson Desert, June 28, 1873. They were deposited in a 

 depression of the alkaline incrustation of the ground. The ground- 

 color of this series ranges from a dark olive through a lighter olivaceous- 

 drab to brownish-drab, and thence to a tine creamy-brown or buff, 

 nearly as in the Shanghai breed of fowls. The eggs are nearly uni- 

 formly marked all over with spots of several shades of chocolate-brown, 

 all on the surface, and others of neutral tint iu the shell. In only one 

 of the specimens is there any decided tendency to aggregation about 

 the larger end or confluence of the spots anywhere. The spots are of 

 small to moderate size and indeterminate shape, none being blotches of 

 any considerable dimensions. All the markings are sharp. Those of 

 the buff* eggs are the most numerous and finest, while the spots of the 

 darkest, olivaceous eggs are the boldest. 



The young Avocet has the head and neck white, with an ashy or plumbeous shade, 

 instead of chestnut or cinnamon-red. In this condition it constitutes the li. occiden- 

 taJis of authors. Of the adult, the bill is black ; the iris, bright red ; the logs and feet, 

 clear, i)ale blue, with part of tbe webs flesh-coloi-ed. The plumage is white, changing 

 to cinnamon or chestnut on the neck and head ; the back, wing-coverts, and primaries 

 black, contrasting with the white of the scapulars and rump. In size the bird is ex- 

 tremely variable; perhaps seventeen inches in total length by thirty iu extent repre- 

 sents average measurements. Contrary to the rule among waders, the female is 

 smaller than the male. 



HIMAN-TOPUS NIGRICOLLIS, Vieill. 



Black-Decked Stilt. 



a. nigricoUis. 



Charadrius mexicanus, Mxjller, Syst. Nat. 1776, 117.— Cass., Pr. Pliila. Acad. 1864, 246. 

 Himantopus mexicanus, Ord, ed. Wils. vii, lti2i, 52.— Maxim., Beitr. iv, 741.— BURM., 



Syst. Ueb. iii, 367.— Wagl., Isis, 1H31, 5-20.- Bp., Comp. List, 183rf, 54. 

 Charadrius himaniojjus, Lath,, Ind. Orn. ii, 1790,741 (in part; includes the American 



species, quoting Arct. Zool. ii. No. 405, &c.). 



