292 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



Continent, as well as in Asia, Africa, and America. 

 In length it is about eighteen inches. Its 

 plumage, as I have stated, is black and white, 

 and it is web-footed. The shape of its bill is 

 very peculiar, being extremely slender, long, 

 and curved upwards. Its motions when feed- 

 ing are singularly graceful and curious : it 

 sways its body from side to side as it walks up 

 the shallow streams in search of food, which 

 it collects by utilizing the sides of its bill, thus 

 swinging its body and bill alternately. It is truly 

 a matter for regret that it has ceased to make its 

 home in this country, but as a fisherman I cannot 

 bear to think that the needs of the ' gentle craft ' 

 are so largely to blame as is supposed for the 

 extinction of this graceful and beautiful bird. 



The black-winged stilt is another rare bird, 

 which is only, as an irregular wanderer on 

 migration, very occasionally met with in Britain. 

 Jt appears to have been at no time common 

 in this country. It is, perhaps, one of the 

 most peculiarly-shaped of all our British birds, 

 the length of its legs being nearly as great as its 

 entire body, giving the idea of extreme weakness. 

 It is plentiful in the South of Spain, Sicily, and 

 some other parts of the Old World. 



There are two varieties of the phalarope which 

 are occasionally to be met with in Britain. One, 

 the gray phalarope, which is more frequent in its 

 visits, sometimes appears in considerable numbers 

 from the aiitiimn to the spring ; the other, the 



