HIMANTOPUS BRASILIENSIS. 



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and the Painted Snipe (Rhyncluea semicollaris) , which are resident all- 

 the year in the Argentine Republic. 



395. HIMANTOPUS BRASILIENSIS, Brehnu 

 (BRAZILIAN STILT.) 



Himantopus nigricollis, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. p. 502 (Pampas); Scf.. et 

 Sak. P. Z. 8. 1808, p. 144 (Buenos Ayres); Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 314 

 (Entrerios, Azul, Pampas). Himantopus brasiliensis, Scl. et Salv. 

 Nomencl. p. 144 ; iid. P. Z. S. 1873, p. 454 ; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 

 (Buenos Ayres) : Gibson, Ibis, 1880, p. 162 (Buenos Ayres). 



Head of BRAZILIAN STILT. 

 (P. Z. S. 1873, p. 454.) 



Description. White ; line behind each eye, nape, back of neck, interscapulium, 

 and wings black ; a narrow white band divides the black neck from the black 

 upper back ; bill black ; feet orange : whole length 14'0 inches, wing 8-5, tail 

 3-3, bill from gape 2-5, tarsus 4-2. Female similar. 



Hab. South America. 



This bird is resident and common in the Plata district, and is called 

 in the vernacular Tfru-real, also Zancudo (stilt). It frequents marshes 

 and lagoons, and wades in search of food in the shallow water near the 

 margin. It is lively in its movements, and notwithstanding the great 

 length of its legs has a pretty, graceful appearance on the ground. On 

 the wing, however, it is seen at its best, the flight being remarkably 

 swift and free, while the sharply-pointed glossy-black wings contrast 

 finely with the snow-white plumage of the body, and the red legs 

 stretched out straight behind have the appearance of a long slender taiL 

 Stilts are fond of aerial exercises, pursuing each other with marvellous 

 velocity through the air, so that a fev r moments after the spectator has 



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