116 NOTES ON THE 



entire clutch, and marked very distinctly with different shades 

 of brown. They are less frequently seen in the fall than in the 

 spring, and are all gone sometime before the frost has cut off 

 their supply of food. 



Since my first records of this species I have been told that 

 several specimens have been seen along the Minnesota bottoms 

 during summer, leaving a reasonable presumption that they 

 breed there limitedly; and rumor makes them occasionally seen 

 at the same season along the Red river in the vicinity of Moor- 

 head, but with how much assurance of being correct I cannot 

 say. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill rather long, depressed: wings long; legs long; tarsi com- 

 pressed; tail short; head and neck pale reddish-brown, darker 

 on the head, fading gradually into white; back, wings, coverts 

 and quills, black; scapulars, tips of greater wing, coverts, 

 rump and tail, and entire under parts, white, the last fre- 

 quently tinged with reddish; bill brownish-black; legs bluish. 



Length, 17; wing, 9; tail. 3.50; commissure, 3.75; tarsus, 3.50. 



Habitat, Temperate North America. 



HIMANTOPUS MEXICANUS (Muller). (226.) 



BLACK-NECKED STILT. 



This wader has as nearly the same history in Minnesota as 

 the Avocet as any description could make it. Arriving simul- 

 taneously, they are found essentially in the same localities, 

 and breeding alike as to nesting and feeding. However, I will 

 say that this species is found more abundantly represented in 

 those places where the Avocets are least, and quite as well 

 represented in their main breeding locations on the Red river. 

 I have never seen its nest "in situ," but the eggs I have seen. 

 They are pale brownish-olive, and covered with dark brown 

 splotches, varied with lighter brown. 



Mr. Lewis reports them common along the Red river from 

 spring till late in October. Mr. Washbnrn does not mention 

 them at either that section, or at MilleLacs Mr. Treganowan 

 notes them at Kandiyohi, and in Grant county in limited num- 

 bers, but not in the breeding season. It is quite evident that 

 migrants from the north in September, distribute themselves 

 over sections that are not visited by birds breeding here. It 

 is very sure that none have ever been observed in those sec- 

 tions at other times than those of migrations. A few have 

 been seen at Duluth on Lake Superior (Laurie), and others in 



