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GENUS HIMANTOPUS. 



STILT. 



[Bili much longer than the head — slender, tapering, and s'ightly recurved— 

 head small, compressed, rounded above ; neck long and slender ; legs very 

 long — body compact — wings long — hind toe wanting; toes slender, and con- 

 nected at the base — middle toe longest — tail short, even.] 



HIMANTOPUS NIGRICOLLIS— VIEILL. 



BLACK-NECKED STILT. 



Long-legged Avocet, Recurvirostra Himantopus, Wils. Amer. Orn. 



Himantopus nijjricollis, Bonap. Syn. 



Black-necked Siilt, Nutt Man. 



Black-necked Stilt, Himantopus nigricollis, And. Orn. B.og. 



Specific Character — Bill black ; forehead, loral space, a spot 

 over the eye, lower eyelid, fore part and sides of the neck, with 

 the entire lower parts, tail, and hind part of back, white ; upper 

 part of head, nape, and a spot on the sides of the head, brownish- 

 black ; fore part of back and scapulars brown ; wings bluish-black, 

 glossed with preen : legs Ions;, slender, yellow. Length fourteen 

 inches, wing eight and a half. 



With us, the. Black-necked Stilt, or " Lawyer" as the gunners 

 term it, is not common. On the sea coast of New Jersey, where 

 they arrive from the South in the latter part of April, they are more 

 plentiful. They usually associate in small parties, and resort to the 

 shallow ponds on the meadows in the vicinity of the sea coast, 

 where they are observed wading about in pursuit of minute shell-fish 

 and aquatic insects. 



Occasionally they are seen loitering about the pools on the south- 

 ern shores of Long Island; but so seldom, that those who visit us 

 are considered mere stragglers. The few that I have at different 

 times procured in this vicinity, have always been alone ; and in con- 

 versation with the gunners, they speak of it as being with them un- 



