308 SCOLOPACID^. 



Robert Ball, near Youghal, in the winter of 1823 ; one was 

 shot near Lough Mask, County Mayo, in 1836, and one at 

 Clontai-f, Dublin Bay, prior to 1837. 



Denmark, to which it is a rare visitant, appears to be 

 the northern limit of the Black-winged Stilt on the Con- 

 tinent ; and throughout Holland and Northern Germany it 

 can only be looked upon as a straggler, although its eggs 

 are said to have once been taken in Anhalt. It is also 

 believed to have nested once near Abbeville, in the north of 

 France, but although well known as a migrant, it is only in 

 the south of that country, especially in the marshes of the 

 Rhone, that it is found breeding regularly. In the marshy 

 plains of the Spanish Peninsula it is abundant, especially 

 in the breeding-season, and eastward it may be found in 

 suitable localities along both sides of the Mediterranean to 

 Asia Minor. In the marshes of the Lower Danube and on 

 the shores of the Black Sea it is also common. From the 

 Canary Islands it can be traced down the west coast of Africa 

 to Cape Colony, and as it is known to visit Madagascar, 

 it probably occurs on the south-eastern coast of Africa. 

 Through Persia and Turkestan its range extends to India 

 and Ceylon, where it breeds ; to the Philippine Islands, and 

 to China, where, however, it has only rarely been observed. 



Its note is a clear pee, j^ce, pee, and its food consists of 

 gnats, flies, beetles, and aquatic insects, in pursuit of which 

 it wades up to the knees in shallow water. The eggs, which 

 are usually four in number, of a rich buffy stone-colour, 

 spotted and blotched with blackish-brown, measuring about 

 1"7 by l"25in., are laid early in May in Spain and North 

 Africa ; in June on the Black Sea, and, as a rule, in the latter 

 month in India. They are generally placed on a slight 

 lining of bents, in a tuft of grass, close to, and almost in, 

 the water, so that they are frequently coated with mud ; but 

 Messrs. Seebohm and Young observed that on the marshes 

 of the Black Sea, the nests were built up to the height of 

 several inches. The latter has furnished the Editor with the 

 following details : — " The nests were placed on the mud, gene- 

 rally from three to six feet from the edge of the water ; one 



