HIMANTOPID^E. 361 



In winter, the crown, lores, back of neck, upper back, scapulars, 

 and wing-coverts, cinereous-brown, darker on the shafts ; super- 

 cilium white ; sides of the head greyish-white ; lower back white ; 

 primaries and their coverts dusky brown ; the secondaries white 

 for the greater portion of their length ; upper tail- coverts and 

 tail barred with white and dark-brown ; throat white ; foreneck and 

 breast greyish-white ; abdomen and lower tail-coverts white. 



During the cold season the Red Shank occurs more or less 

 commonly throughout the whole region. 



FAMILY, Himantopidae. 



Of black and white plumage, not changing in summer ; the 

 legs very much lengthened ; bill long and very thin, and in one 

 genus recurved. 



GENUS, Himantopus, Erisson. 



Bill long, twice the length of the head, very slender, somewhat 

 rounded, pointed, channeled on the sides as far as the middle ; 

 tip of the upper mandible very slightly bent over the under one ; 

 nostrils linear ; wings long, pointed, first quill longest, tail short, 

 even, of twelve feathers ; tibia bare for the greater part of its 

 length ; legs very long, thin reticulated ; toes short ; outer-toe 

 joined to the middle one by a broad web ; inner one with a very 

 small web ; nails short, flat ; hind-toe wanting. 



Himantopus candidus, ona. 



898. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. ^04 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 18 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 

 IX, p. 430 ; H. intermedius, Blyth. ; Murray's Vertebrate 

 Zoology of Sind, p. 258 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; 

 Ibis, 1885, p. 134, 



THE STILT. 

 Gaj-paun, Hin. 



Length, 14*5 to 15'5 ; expanse, 26 to 30; wing, 8*5 to 9 ; tail, 

 3 ; tarsus, 4'5 to 5'5 ; bill at front, 275. 



Bill black, reddish at base ; irides blood-red ; feet lake-red. 



Back of the head black or dusky, more or less mixed with 

 whitish, in some nearly all white, in others with only the nape 

 black ; back and sides of neck grey ; interscapulars and wings 

 glossy green-black ; tail pale ash-grey ; rest of the plumage, 

 including the back and rump, pure white, sometimes tinged with 

 rosy on the breast. 



The Stilt or Long-legs is common throughout the whole region, 

 but only occurs during the cold weather in Guzerat and the 

 Deccan. In Sind it appears to be a permanent resident, 

 breeding freely in the Narra District during June. The eggs, 

 four in number, are deposited on the bare ground ; they are 

 oval in shape, pinched in at one end ; the ground color varies 

 from olive-brown to greenish stone, and the markings consist of 



