CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 1. GRALLATORES. 



281 



America. The Wandering Tatlek — Heteroscelus brevipes of Baird — is found along the Pacific 

 coast and Northeastern Asia. 



6^e«ws RECURVIROSTRxV : Recurvirostra. This inckides the ^I'oce^s or ^wose^s. The Avo- 

 CET of Europe, R.avocetta — sometimes called Scooper and Cobbler'' s-awl-Duch in England — is a very 

 curious bird, with a long bill, turned upward, and appearing like a thin piece of whalebone ; legs 

 long and semipalmatcd, furnishing a support in walking over the mud ; length eighteen inches; 

 color white, with black on the wings and neck; food, worms, aqnatic insects, and thin-skinned 

 Crustacea, which the bird seizes with admirable dexterity in the mud with its slender, sensitive 

 bill. The nest is made in a depression in a drj- part of the marshes ; eggs two. It has an incessant 

 crv of twit., twit. It is migratory, and distributed in Europe, Africa, and Asia; breeds in Great 

 Britain. There are two or three other foreign species. 



The American Avocet, R. Americana — called Blue- Stocking in Xew Jersey — is eighteen 

 inches long; color white; tail tinged with pale ash ; back and wings black ; bill four inches long, 

 and unlike the preceding, turns up along nearly its whole length, and at the tip turns down, and 

 ends in a fine point; ranges from the tropics to 08° north; breeds in New Jersey ; migrates 

 north in May and south in October. 



Genus HIMANTOPUS : Himantopus. — This includes the Stilts, remarkable for the length 



of their legs. The I^uropean or 

 Black-winged Stilt, H. melan- 

 opterus — Echasse of the French — 

 is about fourteen inches long ; the 

 legs extremely long and slender ; it 

 runs easily on the land, and flies 

 with great swiftness. It frequents 

 the borders of the sea, and feeds on 

 worms and small mollusca, and 

 makes its nest in marshes, laying 

 four bluish -green eggs ; found, 

 though not abundantly, in Eastern 

 Europe ; migrates to Asia and Af- 

 rica in winter. The White-head- 

 ed Stilt of Australia is described 

 by Gould as associating in flocks of 

 six to twenty, and running along 

 the streams, and often knee-deep 

 in water, with admirable ease and 

 grace. 



The American Stilt, H. nigri- 

 collis, is thirteen and a half inches 

 long ; general color dark sooty 

 brown ; ranges from Mexico to 

 Massachusetts, and is a winter res- 

 ident from Carolina southwardly. De Kay says : "It is known under the various names of Tilt, 

 Stilt, Longshanks, and Lawyer. The origin of this last popular name, which is most in use, I 

 have not been able to discover. There appears to be nothing unusual in the length of its bill.'" 



Genus MICROPALAMA : Micropalama. — This includes the Long-legged or Stilt Sand- 

 piper, j\f. himantopus ; nine inches long, and found throughout North America. 



Genus LIMOSA: Zmosf/.— This includes the Goclwits, noted for long bills slightly turned 

 upward, and long legs. The Black-tailed Godwit, L. melanura, is sixteen inches long; dark 

 brown above ; beneath white, barred with rufous brown ; found throughout Europe in spring and 

 summer; frequent on the fens of Lincolnshire, England, Avhere the bird-catchers occasionally ftit 

 them on bread and milk for market. The Bar-tailed Godwit, L. riifa, is a European species, 

 chiefly distinguished from the preceding by having shorter legs. 

 Vol. II. — 36 



-<j?ms^'^' 



THE BLACK-WINGED STILT. 



