380 CHARADRIID.E HIMANTOPUS 



nests, one with two, and two with one egg each. These are laid in 

 a slight depression in the sand just above high water mark without 

 any nest. Mr. Wood found a nest at Cove Rock, near East 

 London, on January 1, with two eggs almost ready to hatch. The 

 nest was a mere dint in the rocks with a sprinkling of sand and was 

 in an exposed position. Eggs in the South African Museum are 

 slightly pointed at the acute end, pale grey-brown, marked with 

 irregular spots and scrolls of pale purplish and very dark brown ; 

 they average 1-35 x 1-65. 



Genus II. HIMANTOPUS. 



Type. 

 Himantopus, Briss. Orn. v, p. 33 (1760) ............... H. candidus. 



Bill very long, slender, straight and pointed, without a dertrum 

 or swelling at the tip, nearly twice as long as the middle toe and 

 claw ; nostrils linear, near the base of the bill is a shallow depres- 

 sion which extends about half-way along the bill ; wings long and 

 pointed, extending considerably beyond the tail, the first primary 

 far the longest ; tail short and even ; legs very long, stretching far 

 beyond the wings and tail ; tarsus about three times the length of 

 the middle toe and claw, covered with a fine network of hexagonal 

 scales ; three toes of moderate length with a slight basal web, most 

 developed between the middle and outer toe ; hind toe absent. 



Seven species of this almost cosmopolitan genus are generally 

 recognised ; only the one here described is found in Africa. 



734. Himantopus candidus. Black-winged Stilt. 



Charadrius himantopus, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. i, p. 255 (1766). 

 Himantopus candidus, Bonn. Enc. Metli. i, p. 24 (1790) ; Layard, B. S. 



Afr. p. 328 (1867) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vii, p. 587, pis. 535, 536 (1877) ; 



Sharpe, ed. Layard' s B. S. Afr. p. 675 (1884); Ayres, Ibis, 1885, 



p. 347 ; Fleck, Journ. Ornith. 1894, p. 382 ; Woodward Bros., Natal 



B. p. 188 (1899) ; Alexander, Ibis, 1900, p. 455. 

 Himantopus melanopterus, Meyer, Ann. Wetter. Ges. iii, p. 177 (1814) ; 



Burchell, Travels, i, p. 283 (1822) ; Seebohm, Geogr. Distr. Cliaradr. 



p. 277 (1888). 

 Himantopus autumnalis, Finscli A Hartl Vog. Ost-Afr.^. 758 (1870) ; 



Gurney, in Andersson's B. Damaral. p. 315 (1872). 



