50 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



others bouncing along the ground by leaps and bounds, raising and lowering 

 their wings continually; while others go through every conceivable motion 

 both on the ground and in the air. It seems that the larger the colony the 

 more demonstrative the birds are ; for in several instances where only one or 

 two pairs were breeding the female would sneak from the nest in a 

 guilty manner and quietly join her mate on the opposite side of the pond, 

 where they would remain almost motionless or feed nervously along the margin 

 of the pond. 



Eggs. — Four eggs are usually laid by the black-necked stilt, some- 

 times five, rarely seven, and occasionally only three. The shape is 

 ovate, often somewhat pointed, and there is little, if any, gloss. The 

 ground color is dull " honey yellow," with an olivaceous tinge, or 

 "cream buff." The eggs are irregularly spotted or covered with 

 small blotches of brownish black or black. Sometimes there are a 

 few blackish scrawls and usually a few underlying small spots of 

 drab. They are often stained with mud. The measurements of 75 

 eggs, in the United States National Museum, average 44 by 30.5 

 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 48 by 30, 

 47 by 32, 40.5 by 30, and 46 by 28 millimeters. 



Young. — Incubation is shared by both sexes, but we have no accu- 

 rate information as to its duration. Mr. Dawson (1923) says: 



The infant can make shift to shuffle away from the nest and into cover within 

 the hour, if need be, but he can not negotiate his stilts until several hours have 

 elapsed after hatching; and he feels decidedly pale and tottery, like a young 

 colt, until the day after. 



Dr. Frank M. Chapman (1908) writes: 



On May 23, their eggs were hatching, and in June the snipelike young were 

 widely distributed over the marsh. They invariably attempted to escape obser- 

 vation by squatting with neck outstretched, but the parents, whether one 

 approached their eggs or young, expressed their solicitude by a surprising 

 extravagance of motion, all apparently designed to draw attention to themselves. 

 I was at times surrounded by hopping, fluttering stilts, all calling loudly, wav- 

 ing their wings, bounding into the air to hang there with dangling legs and 

 beating pinions, and executing other feats which would have done credit to 

 acrobatic marionettes. 



Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1925) says: 



The young grow rapidly, and the increase in the length of their legs is 

 amazing. Until the bones are well formed the young, when not feeding, 

 prefer to rest with the full length of the tarsus extended on the ground, 

 but even then appear as tall as other shore birds of similar body size. Stilts 

 show considerable attachment for their young, and, unless dispersed by some 

 untoward accident, frequently remain in family groups long after the young 

 are able to care for themselves. As the latter become strong on the wing 

 the family parties range over the country in search of suitable feeding grounds. 

 As the nights grow cold in the North the birds band together in larger flocks 

 and finally on some moonlit night in September, young and old may be heard 

 calling as they pass overhead on their southward migration. 



