360 The Plover-like Birds 



of various forms of marine life ; it also visits fresh -water ponds in the interior of 

 the country. They are of a sociable disposition, keeping in flocks of a greater 

 of less size, and in contrast to the watchfulness and restlessness of most waders, 

 they are ordinarily di a gentle and unsuspicious nature; contact with man, 

 however, has made them more suspicious. They nest in wet, grassy marshes, 

 making a platform of straw and grass often barely sufficient to keep the eggs 

 out of the water. The eggs number three or four and are similar in color to 

 those of the Avocet. Quite similar to this is the Brazilian Stilt (H. melanurus) 

 of South America, which differs in the white of the forehead extending over the 

 crown, and a white collar separating the black of the nape from that of the back. 

 Its habits are similar, as it frequents marshes and lagoons, wading in search of 

 its food in shallow water near the margin. The Black-winged Stilt (H. himan- 

 topus) of the Old World enjoys a wide range, extending from central and south- 

 ern Europe over the whole of Africa and eastward through central and southern 

 Asia to China, and southward to India and Ceylon. The male sometimes has 

 the whole head and neck white, but usually the hind crown, nape, and hind 

 neck are more or less black, and the wings deep black, glossed with bottle or 

 purplish green. It is, according to Dresser and others, usually a tame and con- 

 fiding species, wading about in shallow water for its food of aquatic insects and 

 the like. It nests in May, often in large communities, building its slight, grass- 

 lined nest on masses of floating herbage. Most closely related to this is perhaps 

 the Australian Stilt (H. leucocephalus) of Australia, New Guinea, etc. 



Ibis-bill. Of somewhat doubtful affinity though apparently related to the 

 Stilts, is the peculiar monotypic Ibis-bill (Ibidorhynchus struthersi) of central 

 Asia, an Ibis-like bird about sixteen inches long, with a hard, long, slender bill 

 much curved downward just beyond the middle. In color it is ashy or brownish 

 gray above and white below, with the front of the head all around blackish brown 

 and the breast marked off by a white-margined black gorget. It is confined 

 in summer to the higher elevations of the Himalayas, sometimes reaching an 

 altitude of 12,000 feet, but coming down in winter nearly to the level of the plains. 

 It frequents the beds of mountain streams, and is usually observed singly or 

 in small, perhaps family, parties of five or six individuals. 



Phalaropes. The graceful and handsome little birds known as Phalaropes 

 may next claim our attention. " Little swimming Sandpipers," Dr. Coues 

 aptly called them, and such they are, being in many ways adapted to strictly 

 aquatic, even pelagic, life, and especially during the winter may often be seen 

 in flocks floating on the ocean many miles from land. They are compactly 

 built birds, between seven and nine inches in length, with short, compressed 

 legs, the tarsus provided with transverse scutellae both before and behind, while 

 the toes are furnished to the tip as in the Coots with a lateral margin or web, 

 which may or may not be indented at the joints. The bill, in which the lateral 

 groove extends nearly to the tip, is equal to or longer than the head, while the 

 wings are relatively long and the tail short, the plumage of the breast and ab- 

 domen being compact and Duck or Gull-like, a provision obviously to keep the 

 cold waters from contact with the body. But these structural features are by 



