BIRDS OF KANSAS. HI 



The plumage of this elegant wader is glossed with a metallic 

 luster that richly shines with different hues in the varying shades 

 of light; a most beautiful sight to the close observer, but at a 

 distance its resplendent colors are not discernable and it appears 

 to be a plain, blackish bird, and is generally known as the Black 

 Curlew. In habits they are gregarious, frequenting low, moist 

 grounds and the edges of lakes and pools of water. Their food 

 consists largely of crawfish, snails, insects and- various low forms 

 of life; minnows and frogs also help to make up their bill of 

 fare. 



In flight their legs and necks are stretched out to their fullest 

 extent. They rise in confusion, but when going any distance 

 quickly form abreast, and fly in a wavy line, high, swift and 

 strong, occasionally sailing as they go, and in alighting, abruptly 

 break the line in as wild confusion as in forming the same. 



The birds are quite common during the breeding season along 

 the Gulf coast of Texas, and westward to the Pacific coast, win- 

 tering chiefly in southern Mexico and northern Central America. 

 I found them wintering in large flocks on the marshy and over- 

 flowed grounds along the Rio de Santiago, long before it enters 

 and after it leaves Lake Chapala, Mexico; and June 30, 1878, I 

 had the pleasure of finding a flock breeding in company with 

 the White, Louisiana and Night Herons, on a small, boggy island 

 in Lake Surprise, on Smith's Point, Galveston Bay. I was too 

 late for their eggs, only finding here and \here a rotten one; 

 the young birds were about two-thirds grown, blackish little fel- 

 lows, that when closely approached awkwardly scrambled from 

 their nests, which were made of stems bitten off from the rushes, 

 cane and flag leaves, loosely placed upon the tops of the dense 

 growth of tall rushes that were rather ingeniously bent and 

 woven together as a foundation. Eggs usually three, 2. 10 x 

 1.44; greenish blue; in form, pointed oval. 



SUBORDER CICONIJE. STORKS, ETC. 



Sides of upper mandible without any groove. Hind toe inserted above the 

 level of the anterior toe; claws broad and flat, resting on a horny pad or shoe, 

 the middle one not pectinated. (Ridyway.) 



