Fam. PHALAROPODIDAs. Phalaropes. 
Nunes 
RECURVIROSTRIDZ, AVOCETS, STILTS. —GEN. 196, 197. 247 
Var. MELANOCEPHALUS. Black-headed Turnstone. Without any of the chestnut 
coloration of the last, the parts that are pied in interpres being blackish; the white 
parts, however, as before. Apparently a permanent melanism. Pacific Coast. 
Cass. in Bp., 702. 
Family RECURVIROSTRIDA. Avocets. Stilts. 
Another small family, characterized by the extreme length of the slender legs, 
and the extreme slenderness of the long acute bill, which is either straight or 
curved upward. ecurvirostra is 4-toed, and full-webbed; the bill is decidedly 
recurved, flattened, and tapers to a needle-like point; the body is depressed; the 
plumage underneath is thickened as in water birds. The species swim well. 
Himantopus is 3-toed, semipalmate, the bill nearly straight, and not flattened; in 
relative length of leg it is probably not surpassed by any bird whatsoever. These 
two genera, each of three or four species of various parts of the world, with 
the Cladorhynchus pectoralis of Australia, 
i compose the family. 
196. Gen. RECURVIROSTRA Linneus. 
Avocet. Blue-stocking. White; back 
and wings with much black ; head and neck 
cinnamon-brown in the adult, ashy in the 
nF young (JL. occidentalis Cass., Ill. 232, pl. 
Fi 
G. 159. Bill and foot of Avocet. 40); bill black; legs blue; eyes red; 
16-18 ; wing 7-8 ; tail33; tarsus33. Temperate N. Am. Wixts., vii, 126, pl. 
63,f. 2; Nurt., ii, 74; Aup., vi, 24, pl.353; Cass.in Bp., 703. AMERICANA. 
197. Genus HIMANTOPUS Brisson. 
Stilt. Longshanks. Lawyer. Glossy black ; 
forehead, sides of head and neck, rump and 
under parts, white; tail white or ashy; bill 
black; legs carmine. Young with back and 
wings brown. 13-15; wing 8-9; tail 3; 
tarsus 4. United States. Wiuus., vii, 48, pl. 
38, f.2; Avp., vi, 31, pl. 354; Nurtr., ii, 8; 
CAsssin-Bp., 704. . . . . #NIGRICOLLIS. 
This is likewise a small family; the three species 
comprising it resemble sandpipers, but are imme- 
diately distinguished by the lobate feet ; the toes are furnished with plain or scalloped 
membranes, like those of coots and grebes, but not so broad. The body is depressed, 
and the under plumage thick and duck-like to resist water, on which the birds swim with 
perfect ease and grace. The wings and tail are like those of ordinary sandpipers ; the 
tarsi are much compfessed ; there is basal webbing of the toes besides the marginal 
membrane ; the bill, and some other details of form, differ in each of the three species. 
These birds inhabit the northern portions of both hemispheres, two of them at 
least breeding only in boreal regions, but they all wander far southward in winter. 
Fie. 160. Stilt. 
