192 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



number, yellowish-grey or pale-olive green, marked with 

 shades of olive or of chestnut-brown. 



THE BLACK- WINGED STILT. Himantopus melanoptems. 

 Although this species is distributed over the continents of 

 Europe, Asia, and Africa, its true home is supposed to be 

 the eastern part of Europe. Morasses and the low flat 

 shores of lakes, rivers, and seas, are its favourite resorts. It 

 swims with ease, and flies with great rapidity. It has from 

 time to time occurred in Great Britain, generally, but not 

 invariably, in the spring or winter, sometimes singly, but 

 at other times in small flocks. Its nest, situate in marshy 

 places, is formed in a hollow or depression on some slightly 

 elevated spot: the eggs are four, but variously described by 

 different writers. The Eev. F. O. Morris, following Pro- 

 fessor Thieneman, states them to be of a pale-blue colour, 

 blotted and streaked with greyish-green, or olive-green and 

 dark-brown ; while the author of the ' Pictorial Museum of 

 Animated Nature' describes them, upon the authority of 

 M. Temminck, as of a tarnished-green colour, marked with 

 numerous ashy spots, and with moderate and very small 

 reddish-brown spots. Both these descriptions, however, 

 differ entirely from the representation of the egg given by 

 Mr. Hewitson, in the edition of his ' Coloured Illustrations 



