166 SCOLOPACID.E. 



During winter we occasionally see the knot exposed in the 

 markets of the city, where it is dignified with the name of sea- 

 snipe. 



In the summer plumage, so rarely observed in Ireland, it 

 is one of our most beautiful plumaged birds. A specimen in 

 our collection, obtained in Clare by Edward Burton, Esq., of 

 Clifden, exhibits the same rich reddish colour of the breast 

 which had obtained for it the well-known name of red sand- 

 piper, and caused older naturalists at one time to raise it to 

 the dignity of a new species. 



Habitat Northern Europe. 



GENUS LXXVII HIMANTOPUS (STILTSHANK). 



SPECIES 158 THE BLACK- WINGED STILT. 



Himantopus melanopterus. Selby. 

 Echasse a manteau noir. Temm. 



Long-legged Plover. 



THIS extraordinary- looking species, so remarkable for the 

 immense development of the tarsi, is of the greatest rarity, 

 two or three specimens being the utmost we can reckon of its 

 occurrence in our Fauna. 



Remarkably slender in its form, with a distinguishing plu- 

 mage of black and white, the legs are so immensely elongated, 

 as to have suggested the idea of a bird progressing upon stilts. 

 From the notice of a specimen obtained in Norfolk by the 

 Rev. R. Lubbock, the following curious particulars are re- 

 marked : " When shot it was standing in a shallow pool of 

 water, mid-leg deep, apparently snapping at insects in the air 

 as they buzzed about it."* The stilt has also been obtained 

 in several other instances in England and Scotland. What 

 taste the flesh has we are unable to determine, but Belon in- 

 forms us they were served at the table of u Monseigneur le 

 Cardinal de Tournon en la duche d'Urbri," and were found 

 excellent. Well known to the elder Pliny, it still preserves 

 the name (Himantopus) which he had given it. 



Habitat Northern Africa. 



* Jardine. 



