^°1893^'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 791 



cackling voice when they take flight. When vStaiuling in reed.s or 

 sedge, they frequently stretch the neck up straight on the lookout for 

 possible danger. They have also a curious habit of stretching the 

 wings and raising them up over the back until they meet, thus dis- 

 playing to the best advantage the beautiful contrasting colors of the 

 wing-feathers, which in this position are conspicuously visible for a 

 long distance. On wounding one of these birds, I found that it was a 

 very fair swimmer, and, when I overtook it in a boat, it dived with as 

 much confidence as a grebe, and I never saw it again. 



Adults and fully grown young were taken December 20. 



Fresh colors of a female adult were as follows: Iris, very dark 

 brown; bill and frontal lobe, king's yellow, the latter dusky ashy at 

 base; base of bill dirty white, slightly dusky at juncture of yellow por- 

 tion; tarsi and toes, dusky greenish, brighter at the joints; alar spines, 

 chrome. 



Fresh colors of a male bird diifered slightly, as follows: Iris, alar 

 spines, and under mandible, dull yellow; frontal lobe, slightly greenish 

 yellow; upper mandible, olive, dusky at the base and with a whitish 

 ?pot at the angles of the mouth; tarsi and toes as in the female. 



Family EECURVIROSTRID^. 



111. Himantopus mexicanus (Miifl.). 



In small flocks on the shores of Lake Patzcuaro, December 22. Very 

 shy; a specimen shot had a tapeworm in its intestines. Iris, carmine 

 (the pupil in this bird is so large that the iris is reduced to a mere 

 line); tarsi, pink; joints, lilaceous; toes, dull orange; nails, seal brown j 

 bill, purplish black. 



Family SGOLOPACID^. 



112. Gallinago delicata (Ord). 



Common in suitable places along marshy banks of streams in winter. 

 Taken at Hacienda Angostura, San Luis Potosi, December 8. Two 

 birds were discovered sleeping at noonday on a mossy bank, side by 

 side, with their long bills tucked under their wings. 



Smithsonian Institution, November 3, 1S93. 



