Stilts 



359 



afterward stretched stiffly backward, as a counterpoise to their long necks; 

 and, thus balanced, their lithe bodies were supported with great ease by their 

 ample wings." The nests are placed on the ground in marshy places, often 

 amongst tall grasses, and are composed of a thick bed of old grass stems. The 

 eggs, three or usually four in number, are pale olive or clay-color, thickly spotted 

 with chocolate -brown. The usual tactics are adopted by the old birds to lead 

 an intruder from the nest or very young chicks. The food of the Avocet con- 

 sists of insects, mollusks, and other small aquatic life, and is secured by moving 

 the head from side to side while the bill is passing through the soft mud. 



The Chilean Avocet (R. andina) of the Andes of Chile is similar to the last, 

 but has no white on the upper parts except on the head, neck, and rump. The 

 Old World species are also somewhat similar, the European R. avocetta having 

 the crown black or blackish brown, while in the Australian Red-necked Avocet (R. 

 nova-hollandia) the crown is 

 chestnut. 



Stilts. In the Stilts the 

 hind toe is entirely absent. 

 Of the two genera we may 

 first speak of Cladorhynchus, 

 in which the bill is perfectly 

 straight and all the toes 

 webbed ; it includes only the 

 Banded Stilt (C. leucocepha- 

 lus} of Australia. It is smaller 

 than the Avocets, being only 

 thirteen and a half inches 

 long, and is white throughout 

 except that the wings and 

 center of the abdomen are 

 black and the breast crossed 

 by a broad band of chestnut, 

 which perhaps disappears in 

 winter. 



In the true Stilts (Himantopus}, of which there are some six or seven species, 

 there is no web between the inner and middle toes, and the cylindrical or slightly 

 depressed bill is slightly recurved from the middle. The only North American 

 species is the Black-necked Stilt (H. mexicanus}, which occurs also in tropical 

 America, but breeding northward to the Gulf coast and Great Basin and locally 

 up the Mississippi Valley as far as Minnesota. It is about fifteen inches long, 

 the male being glossy, greenish black above, with the front of the head, a spot 

 above and another below the eye, the rump and under parts pure white; the 

 female is similar, but has the back brownish slate-color; the legs and feet are 

 lake-red or rose-pink. It frequents especially small, shallow, brackish ponds 

 or the upper portions of salt marshes, in which it wades about seeking its food, 

 which consists of small shell-fish, aquatic insects, with the larvae, eggs, and spawn 



FIG. 1 20. Black- necked Stilt, Himantopus mexicanus. 



