HIMAN 



at the level on which it stands ; but in the stilt, 

 though the neck is longhand has a good deal of action, 

 it is still so short in proportion to the legs, that the 

 bird could not keep its balance, and reach with its bill 

 the level on which it stands. Our common name 

 stilt is therefore the most descriptive one that can be 

 given to it ; for it is really a bird " on stilts,'' that is, 

 elevated for action ubove the plane of the feet. 



This will give us at least a notion of the climates 

 and localities for which the stilt is best fitted ; and if 

 we find these to accord with the actual ones in which it 

 is observed, then we may safely conclude that we have 

 found a clue to the use of the bird in nature, different 

 as it is from those birds with which we are most 

 familiar. 



Now, the form of the legs in the stilt clearly shows 

 that it is to wade in water, not beyond its depth of 

 course, but still where its bill, long as it is, cannot 

 reach the bottom ; and though the slight turn upwards 

 of the bill shows that the food is to be taken from a 

 level below the common axis of the body, yet not so 

 far below as in the case of the avoset. The legs of 

 the avoset are also stout, to give it a firm base as it 

 wades ; whereas those of the stilt are very light and 

 flexible. The foot too has the character of a swift 

 foot, but the flexible leg does not answer to it upon 

 land. The lightness of the foot, however, enables 

 the bird to lift it in the water with very little exer- 

 tion, and the flexibility of the tarsus makes it far less 

 liable to injury from striking against obstacles in the 

 water than if it had been a hard bone of the same 

 weight. Thus, singular as this leg appears at first 

 sight, when we come to examine the matter a little 

 attentively we find that it is the very best foot for 

 wading in shallow water, in the same way as every 

 thing in nature which our ignorance considers an 

 imperfection becomes a perfection. 



Such is the adaptation of the bird ; and our next 

 step is to find the places for which it is adapted. Shal- 

 low waters replete with living creatures are obviously 

 the places ; and wherever shallow water is exposed 

 to powerful action of the sun, so as to have its tem- 

 perature considerably increased, such water instantly 

 becomes the stimulus to a vast number of living crea- 

 tures ; the larvae of the larger water flies, water bee- 

 tles, small Crustacea, and univalve mollusca. The 

 tropical countries, where they get flooded by the 

 rains, furnish such places at one season of the year ; 

 and the shallow marshy pools of more temperate 

 countries furnish the same during the summer ; and 

 it so happens that, in the northern hemisphere, which 

 is the great hemisphere of seasonal migration, these 

 alternate with each other. Thus we at once see that 

 the stilt should be a migratory bird, and in what 

 places it ought to be found. We have gone at some 

 length into this subject, because the bird is a very sin- 

 gular one, and performs a very singular office in 

 nature a part peculiar to itself, as it were, in which 

 it has no rival ; and we have also done so because we 

 believe there is no English work which gives any 

 tolerable account of the economy of this bird, how- 

 ever correctly some may describe its appearance. As 

 lawyers say, we have " taken the argument" upon the 

 American 'species rather than the European one, be- 

 cause we can call Wilson as evidence ; and if he bear 

 out the case, we are sure of a verdict even from the 

 iii<>st fastidious reader. We shall not mutilate the 

 account given by the great ornithologist of America : 

 though it is a little lengthy. 



T P U S. 747 



" This species arrives on the sea coast of New 

 Jersey about the 2oth of April, in small detached 

 flocks of twenty or thirty together. These some- 

 times again sub-divide into lesser parties ; but it 

 rarely happens that a pair is found solitary, as, during 

 the breeding season, they usually associate in small 

 companies. On their first arrival, and, indeed, during 

 the whole of their residence, they inhabit those par- 

 ticular parts of the salt marshes pretty high up to- 

 wards the land, that are broken into numerous shal- 

 low pools, but are not usually overflowed by the tides 

 during t'he summer. These pools or ponds are gene- 

 rally so shallow, that, with their long legs, the avosets 

 can easily wade them in every direction ; and as tliey 

 abound with minute shell fish, and multitudes of 

 aquatic insects and their larvae, besides the eggs and 

 spawn of others deposited in the soft mud below, 

 these birds find here an abundant supply of food, and 

 are almost continually seen wading about in such 

 places^, often up to the breast in water. In the vici- 

 nity o'f these bald places, as they are called, fifty 

 yards off, among the thick tufts of grass, one of these 

 small associations, consisting perhaps of six or eight 

 pair, takes up its residence during the breeding sea- 

 son. About the first week in May, they begin to 

 construct their nests, which are at first slightly formed 

 of a small quantity of old grass scarcely sufficient to 

 keep the eggs from the wet marsh. As they lay and 

 sit, however, either dreading the rise of the tides, or for 

 other purposes, the nest is increased in height with 

 dry twigs of a shrub very common in the marshes, 

 roots of the salt grass, sea-weed, and various other 

 substances, tL? whole weighing between two or three 

 pounds. This habit of adding materials to the nest 

 after the female begins sitting, is common to almost 

 all other birds that breed in the marshes. The eggs 

 are four in number, of a dark yellowish clay colour, 

 thickly marked with large blotches of black. Their 

 nests are often placed within fifteen or twenty yards 

 of each other ; but the greatest harmony seems to 

 prevail among the proprietors. While the females 

 are sitting, the males are either wading through the 

 ponds, or roaming over the adjoining marshes ; but 

 should a person make his appearance, the whole col- 

 lect together in the air, flying with their long legs 

 extended behind them, keeping up a continued yelp- 

 ing note of click, click, click. Their flight is steady, 

 and not in short sudden jerks, like that of the plover. 

 As they frequently alight on the bare marsh, they 

 drop their wings, stand with their legs half bent, and 

 trembling, as if unable to sustain the burden of their 

 bodies. In this ridiculous posture, they will some- 

 times stand for several minutes, uttering a curring 

 sound, while, from the corresponding quivering of 

 their wings and long legs, they seem to balance 

 themselves with great difficulty. This singular ma- 

 noeuvre is, no doubt, intended to induce a belief that 

 they may be easily caught, and so turn the attention 

 of the person from the pursuit of their nests and 

 young to themselves. The red-necked avoset prac- 

 tises the very same deception in the same ludicrous 

 manner, and both alight indiscriminately on the 

 ground, or in the water. Both will also occasionally 

 swim for a few feet, when they chance, in wading, to 

 lose their depth, as I have had several times an op- 

 portunity of observing. The name by which this 

 bird is known on the sea coast is the stilt or tilt, or 

 longshanks. They are but sparingly dispersed over 

 the marshes, having, as has been already observed, 



