I 82 RECURVIROSTRIDjE I AVOCETS I STILTS. 



New England by Prof. Verrill and Dr. Coues, on the 

 strength of a single specimen said to have been taken 

 by Mr. G. A. Boardman, near Calais. As the specimen 

 was not taken near Calais, but at Point Lepreaux, New 

 Brunswick, we are without any evidence that this bird 

 belongs to our fauna, and therefore I take it out " (Pr. 

 Bost. Soc., xvii, 1875, p. 452). In preparing the Mas- 

 sachusetts list in 1878, Mr. Allen could find no author- 

 ity for including the Avocet among the birds of that 

 State, and accordingly only gave it a hypothetical place, 

 on the strength of the 1862 New Brunswick, and the 

 1871 Connecticut cases above mentioned (Bull. Essex 

 Inst., x, 1875, p. 34). These seem to have remained 

 the only authenticated records until very recently. Mr. 

 N. C. Brown has given the interesting note of the cap- 

 ture of a specimen at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Nov. 5, 

 1878 (Bull. Nutt. Club, iv, 1879, p. 108). Mr. Purdie has 

 noted another taken in Natick, Middlesex Co., Mass., 

 making the third authentic New England one, and the 

 first for Massachusetts (Bull. Nutt. Club, vi, 1881, p. 

 123). Mr. G. A. Boardman and Mr. Montague Cham- 

 berlain have each lately noticed the casual occurrence 

 of Avocets in New Brunswick (Bull. Nutt. Club, v, 1880, 

 p. 241, and vii, 1882, p. 105). 



BLACK-NECKED STILT. 

 HIMANTOPUS MEXICANUS (Mull.) Ord. 



Chars. Legs, exceedingly long, slender, red ; feet, semipalmate ; 

 no hind toe. Bill, black, very slender and acute, longer than 

 head. Iris, red. Color, white, with lustrous black wings and 

 back, and black stripe up back of neck. Length about 15.00 ; 

 extent^ 27.00 ; wing, 8.75 ; tail, 3.00 ; bill, 2.50 ; tarsus, 4.00. 



