RECUR VIROSTRA HIMANTOPUS 753 



pi. 534; David and Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 461 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. 

 Mus. xxiv. p. 326 : Blanf. F. Brit. Ind. Birds, iv. p. 248 ; Tacz. 

 F. 0. Sib. 0. p. 853 ; Saunders, p. 561 ; Lilford, v. p. 49, pi. 19 ; 

 Poynting, p. 79, pi. 19. 



Avocette a nuque noire, French ; Alfayate, Frade, Portug. ; 

 Boceta, Span. ; Avocetta, Ital. ; Avosett-sdbler, German ; Kluit, 

 Dutch ; Klyde, Dan. and Norweg. ; Skarftdcka, Swed. ; Schilok- 

 liovlca, Russ. ; Bou-mehet, Moor. ; Halebi, Arab. ; Kusya-chaha, 

 Hindu. 



<J ad. (Spain). Crown, sides of head to below the eye, nape, hind 

 neck, primaries, and wing-coverts, except those at the base of the wing, 

 black ; rest of plumage white ; beak slender, curved upwards, black ; legs 

 light blue ; iris reddish brown. Culmen 4'0, wing 8*5, tail 3'45, tarsus 

 3'65 inch. Sexes alike. In the winter the black on the upper parts is 

 sullied with grey, and the middle tail-feathers are tinged with brownish 

 grey. 



Hob. Europe, north to Southern Sweden; formerly an in- 

 habitant of, but now only an accidental visitant to Britain; 

 Africa in winter as far south as the Cape Colony ; Asia, east to 

 Mongolia and China, north to Dauria, south to India and Ceylon. 



Frequents damp marshy localities, and is exceedingly shy and 

 wary. Its note is a clear, loud kluit, uttered several times in 

 succession, and its food consists of small aquatic insects which 

 it obtains from the surface by swaying sideways with the bill, 

 the action reminding one forcibly of a mower cutting grass. It 

 wades far in the water, and will when necessary swim, which it 

 does with ease. It breeds in May, the nest being a depression 

 in the soil, or the dry mud near the water, scantily lined with a 

 few grass-bents, and the eggs, 3 to 4 in number, are clay-buff 

 or stone-ochre with a faint greyish tinge, with blackish grey 

 underlying shell-markings and bold black surface spots and 

 blotches, and measure about 2'1 by 1*5. 



HIMANTOPUS, Briss., 1760. 



1047. BLACK-WINGED STILT. 



HIMANTOPUS CANDIDUS. 



Himantopus candidus, Bonnat. Tabl. Encycl. Meth. i. p. 24 (1791) ; 

 Gould, B. of Gt. Brit. iv. pi. 34 ; Dresser, vii. p. 587, pis. 535, 536 ; 

 David and Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 462 ; Blanf. F. Brit. Ind. Birds, iv. 

 p. 247 ; Saunders, p. 563 ; Poynting, p. 85, pi. 20 ; Charadrius himan- 

 topus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 255 ; (Naum.), viii. p. 191, Taf. 203 ; 

 (Sharpe), Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxiv. p. 310 ; H. melanopterus, Meyer, 

 Ann. Wetter. Gesellsch. iii. p. 177 (1814) ; Gould, B. of E. iv. pi. 289 ; 

 Hewitson, ii. p. 342, pi. xcii. fig. 1 ; Lilford, v. p. 51, pi. 20. 



