LIMICOL/E. 



BLACK-WINGED STILT. 305 



, SCOLOPACIDjE. 



HiMANTOPUS CANDiDUS, BonnateiTe*. 



BLACK- WINGED STILT. 



Himantopus melanopterns. 



HiMANTOPUS, Brissonf. — Beak long, slender, slightly recurved at the tip, cylin- 

 drical, flattened at the base, compressed at the point, both mandibles grooved 

 on the sides along the basal half of their length. Nostrils lateral, linear, elon- 

 gated. Legs very long and slender, three toes in front, the middle toe united to 

 the outer toe by a membrane of considerable size, and to the interior toe by a 

 membrane of smaller size ; claws' or nails very small, flat. Wings very lone the 

 first quill feather considerably the longest in the wing. 



The Black-winged Stilt was first recorded as a visitor 

 to these islands by Sir Robert Sibbald,| who describes and 



* Tableau Encycloped. et Method., i. p. 24 (1790). 



t Ornithologie, V. p. 33 (1760). 



X Scotia Illustrata, II., p. 18, pis. xi. fig. 1, and xiii. fig. 2 (1684). 



VOL. III. R R 



