BLACK WINGED STILT. 22? 



ounces, and one quarter ; and if four ounces and a quarter have 

 eight inches of legs, four pounds must have one hundred and 

 twenty inches and a fraction of legs ; viz. somewhat more than 

 ten feet ; such a monstrous proportion as the world never saw ! 

 If you should try the experiment in still larger birds the dis- 

 parity would still increase. It must be matter of great curiosity 

 to see the stilt plover move ; to observe how it can wield such a 

 length of lever with such feeble muscles as the thighs seem to be 

 furnished with. At best one should expect it to be but a bad 

 walker : but what adds to the wonder is, that it has no back toe. 

 Now without that steady prop to support its steps it must be 

 liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacillations, and seldom able 

 to preserve the true centre of gravity.* 

 The old name of himantopus is taken from Pliny ; and, by an 



* This singular form is now elevated to the rank of a genus, which contains three or four 

 species, all of which, however, are rather difficult of distinction unless compared together. Our 

 bird is known as the himantopus melanopterus of systematists. It is of excessively rare occurrence 

 as a British species, though, as Selby remarks, " a few specimens have from time to time been 

 killed in different parts of these islands." We know little of its habits, save what can be in- 

 ferred from Wilson's admirable description of one of its congeners, the black-necked stilt (H- 

 nigricallis) of North America, termed by him the " long-legged avoset." Indeed, from the minute 

 description of this admirable ornithologist, the stilts resemble in a variety of respects the avoset 

 genus, particularly in their habits and manner of feeding, which are peculiar. He relates that, 

 in North America, the black-necked stilt " arrives on the sea-coast of New Jersey about the 25th 

 of April, in small detached flocks, of twenty or thirty together. These sometimes 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 particular parts of the salt marshes pretty 

 high up towards the laud that are broken into numerous shallow pools, but are not usually over- 

 flowed by the tides during the summer. These pools, or ponds, are generally so shallow, that, 

 with their long legs, the avosets [stilts] can easily wade them in every direction ; and as they 

 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." 



After describing their mode of breeding, in which they continue social, each female laying, as 

 is usual with birds of this order, four eggs, Wilson continues that, " while the females are sitting, 

 the males are either wading through the ponds or roaming over the adjoining marshes ; bat, 

 should a person make his appearance, the whole collect together in the air, flying with their long 

 legs extended behind them, keeping up a continual yelping 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, tliey 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 sometimes stand for 

 several minutes, uttering a curring sound, while, from the corresponding quiverings 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 practises the same deception, in the same ludicrous manner, and both alight indis- 

 criminately 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 1 have had several times an opportunity of 

 observing." 



It is a pity that the birds Mr. White mentions were not suffered to breed, as they most pro- 

 bably would have done, if unmolested. Surely less than five might have satisfied the " curiosity" 

 of the pond keeper. ED. 



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