BLACK -WINGED STILT. 303 



THE BLACK- WINGED STILT. 



HIMANTOPUS MELANOPTERUS. 



THIS curious bird is figured in Pennant's " Caledonian Zoology," 

 Plate IV., and simply catalogued as a Scottish species on page 35 

 of that work the author's authority for its introduction being 

 apparently Sir Robert Sibbald, who states, in the work referred 

 to by Pennant, (Hist. Scot. lib. iii., 18 tab. xi. xiii.,) that two 

 specimens had been obtained at a lake near Dumfries: one of 

 these had been examined by the author. 



The next occurrence of the Black- winged Stilt is thus alluded 

 to by Don in his Forfarshire list, published in 1812: "I once 

 saw one bird of this species on the mountains of Clova: I have 

 never observed but another, which was on Ben Lawers, in Perth- 

 shire, in August, 1793: it is a rare bird, and, I believe, but few 

 naturalists have seen it alive." Two specimens were also killed at 

 Lopness, in Orkney, in 1 814. Later still it is mentioned as a rare 

 species found in the parish of Glenshiel, in Ross-shire, by the 

 Rev. John M'Rae, who published his statistical account in 

 November, 1836. I can find no other record of its appearance in 

 any part of Scotland until 1850, when a specimen, killed on the 

 banks of the Clyde, near Port-Glasgow, was exhibited at a 

 meeting of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, by Dr J. 

 A. Smith, the society's secretary. After a lapse of nearly twenty 

 years, it reappeared in 1867, and, from the several records com- 

 municated to me, I am inclined to believe that a small flock had 

 visited Britain in that year. The first information I received 

 was from my indefatigable correspondent, Mr Angus, of Aberdeen, 

 in the following note: "15th September, 1867. I observed a 

 bird in the Tile Burn, near Don mouth, which, on close inspection, 

 I recognised as the stilt plover. It stood at an angle across the 

 water, with its head to the wind, which at the time was blowing 

 hard from the south-west. It appeared to be a bird of the year; 

 certainly the plumage was not that of the adult. The under 

 surface of the body was dirty white; head dusky, with dark 

 streaks; the upper parts dusky brown, or appeared to be so, 

 viewed with a binocular glass under a clear sun, at a distance of 

 one hundred and thirty yards ; the legs orange ; iris, beautiful red. 

 Not having seen this species before, I was particularly struck with 



