394 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ZOOLOGY, VOL. IX. 



Genus HIMANTOPUS Brisson. 

 1 06. Himantopus mexicanus (MULL.) . 



BLACK-NECKED STILT. 



D.istr.: Temperate North America, from northern United States 

 southward to the West Indies, northern Brazil and Peru; rare in 

 eastern United States, except in Florida, where it breeds. 



Adult: Top and sides of the head and back of the neck and back, 

 black; under eyelid and a spot above and behind the eye, forehead, 

 and sides of the head under the eye, white; rest of under parts, with 

 the rump and upper tail coverts, white; tail, ash gray or pearl gray; 

 bill, black; legs, red in life. 



The immature bird has the upper parts brownish; feathers, edged 

 with whitish; wings, blackish, some of the feathers, tipped with white; 

 wing coverts, edged with buff or tawny brown; under parts, white, 

 mottled with black and tawny brown. 



Length, 15.50; wing, 9; tail, 3; tarsus, 4.25; bill, 2.70. 



The Black-necked Stilt is of casual occurrence in southern Illinois, 

 although probably rare at the present time. Nelson considered it 

 an exceedingly rare visitant in northern Illinois and states there is a 



