BLACK-NECKED STILT 47 



HIMANTOPUS MEXICANUS (Miiller) 

 BLACK-NECKED STILT 

 HABITS 



Although I first met the black-necked stilt in the Florida Keys 

 in 1903, it was not until I visited the irrigated regions of the San 

 Joaquin Valley in California in 1914, that I saw this curious bird 

 living in abundance and flourishing in most congenial surroundings. 

 It was a pleasant change from the cool, damp air of the coast region 

 to the clear, dry warmth of this highly cultivated valley. The natu- 

 rally arid plains between the distant mountain ranges had been 

 transformed by irrigation into fertile fields of alfalfa and wheat, 

 vast areas had been flooded with water from the melting snows of 

 the Sierras, forming grazing lands for herds of cattle and endless 

 marshes, wet meadows, ponds and creeks, for various species of 

 water birds. As W. Leon Dawson (1923) puts it: 



The magic touch of water following its expected channels quickens an other- 

 wise barren plain into a paradise of avian activities. Ducks of six or seven 

 species frequent the deeper channels ; coots and gallinules and pied-billed grebes 

 crowd the sedgy margins of the ponds ; herons, bitterns, ibises, and egrets, seven 

 species of Ilerodiones, all told, occupy the reedy depths of the larger ponds 

 or deploy over the grassy levels. Kails creak and titter, red wings clink, yel- 

 low-headed blackbirds gurgle, wrangle, and screech ; while the marsh wrens, 

 familiar spirits of the maze, sputter and chuckle over their quaint basketry. 

 The tricolored blackbirds, also in great silent companies recruited from a 

 hundred acres, charge into their nesting covert with a din of uncanny preoccu- 

 pation. Over the open ponds black terns hover, and Forster terns flit with 

 languid ease. Tbe killdeer is not forgotten, nor the burrowing owl, whose 

 home is in the higher knolls ; but over all and above all and through all comes 

 the clamor of the black-necked stilt and the American avocet. 



Of all these birds, the stilts were the most conspicuous in the 

 wet meadows about Los Banos, where they were always noisy and 

 aggressive. I have never seen them so abundant elsewhere, though 

 I have seen them in similar situations in Florida and Texas, on 

 extensive wet meadows where shallow water fills the hollows between 

 myriads of little muddy islets and tufts of grass. Here they can 

 wade about and feed in the water or build their nests on the hum- 

 mocks above high- water mark, and here their young can hide suc- 

 cessfully among the grassy tufts. 



Nesting. — My first glimpse of a black-necked stilt was a complete 

 surprise, and my first nest was in an unexpected situation. On 

 May 8, 1903, we landed on Lake Key, in the Florida Keys, a low flat, 

 open island with sandy shores and a lake in the middle of it. We 

 walked across the beach, through a narrow strip of low red man- 

 grove bushes and came to a little muddy pond, very shallow and 

 dotted with little mangrove seedlings. Here we were delighted to 



