or little-known Limicolae. 243 



shoulders, wings, tail, and upper tail-coverts brownish black ; 

 the greater wing-coverts and primaries with greenish black 

 reflections, but without any white/^ 



On reading this description, it seemed just possible that 

 the bird in question might be immature ; and as I remembered 

 to have noticed in other species, and in some species of the 

 allied genus Himantopus, that the tail-feathers are, for the 

 most part, grey in the young, but become pure white in the 

 adult, a careful comparison was necessary before any satis- 

 factory conclusion could be arrived at. 



The result of this comparison has satisfied me that the 

 bird described by Herren Philippi and Landbeck must be re- 

 garded as a valid and highly interesting species. 



The genus Recurvirostra is a very restricted one ; and it is 

 not difficult, therefore, to point out the distinguishing cha- 

 racters of the four species of which it is composed, and show 

 in what respects R. andina difiiers from its congeners. 



Recurvirostra avocetta, which is the most widely distributed 

 of all (being found, as I shall presently show, throughout the 

 greater part of Europe, Asia, and Africa), is at once to be 

 distinguished by its black crown and nape, present at all sea- 

 sons, in young as well as in old birds, although of a paler or 

 browner hue in the case of the former. This peculiarity is 

 shared by no other species of Avocet. In the distribution of 

 colour about the back and wings it resembles the New -World 

 species, R. americana ; that is to say, the scapulars, wing- 

 coverts, and primaries are black, while the interscapulars 

 and secondaries are pure white. The closed wing has thus 

 the appearance of being crossed by two very conspicuous 

 white bars. This distribution of colour is indicated at a very 

 early age, even in the young bird incapable of flight, the parts 

 which in the adult are black being in the young of a mealy 

 brown hue. The tail and tail-coverts are at all seasons 

 white. 



From this species R. andina differs in having a white head, 

 an absence of white upon the wing, and the tail and tail- 

 coverts brownish black. 



In R. amei'icana the crown and nape are never at any season 



