THE STILTS. I91 



anxiety at the nest — one a sharp, rapidly repeated kit-kit-kit^ 

 or /z//, hit^ Jut, and the other a sort of rattling note, resembling 

 the syllable peiir-r-re. As the wily bird succeeds in luring 

 the intruder away from its treasures, it does not fly so near 

 him ; the former note only is heard, and is less rapidly and 

 less anxiously repeated ; the final / is omitted, or is inaudible, 

 and the note sounds like kee, kee, kee." Lord Lilford writes: — 

 " I have always found this bird very easy of approach. In 

 the breeding-season it is difficult to drive them from their 

 nesting-places, over which they hover with loud outcries, and 

 I have frequently ridden to within a few feet of Stilts wading 

 in a few inches of water, and busily engaged in picking up 

 small insects from the weeds, or snapping at them in the air. 

 In Spain I have found the stomachs and throats of these birds 

 crammed with what I believe to have been mosquitoes, or 

 some very nearly allied and probably equally pestilent insects, 

 and on this score alone this pretty bird is worthy of protection, 

 more especially as its flesh is worthless, and its tameness so 

 great that the most rabid collector can obtain more specimens 

 than he can reasonably require in a few minutes." Colonel 

 Irby says that the Stilt is, in spring, one of the most common 

 of the marsh-birds on both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar. 

 At Meshree el Haddar, in Marocco, and in the marisma of 

 the Guadalquivir, their numbers were perfectly marvellous. 

 " In some seasons they have nested at the Laguna de la Janda. 

 They frequent open shallow pools and lakes, and are very 

 seldom seen where there is grass or rushes, being, as a rule, 

 very tame and confiding, while their conspicuous black and 

 white plumage and noisy habits render them certain to attract 

 attention, either as they fly with their long pink legs stretched 

 out. Heron-like, behind them, or as they wade about, usually 

 up to their knees, in the shallow water, where they seek their 

 food in the shape of aquatic insects, gnats, and flies." 



Nest. — Placed in various situations, such as on the half-dried 

 mud in Spain. Mr. Howard Saunders has found the nest by 

 the pools in the marismas, consisting of a slight nest of bents 

 by the side of a tuft of rushes, often so near the water as to 

 be coated with mud from the bird's feet. Sometimes they are 

 more sohd structures, and Mr. Seebohm found nests in the 

 Dobrudscha built of weeds, broken bits of old dead reeds, and 



