62 Mr. E. Gibson on the Onutholofpj of [Ibis, 



stopping altogether and glancing down, I caught sight of one 

 bird nestling a little closer into its shelter or the black eye of 

 another regarding me sideways; while strange little notes of 

 warning and suppressed excitement seemed to emanate from 

 nowhere and pervade the air around me; otherwise the flock 

 was quite indistinguishable from its surroundings. The 

 contrast between the confident quiescence of one moment 

 and the sharp alarm-cry and wild flight when the birds 

 elected suddenly to take their departure was most striking. 



395. Himantopiis brasiliensis Brehm. Brazilian Stilt. 



In his description of this species Mr. Hudson commits 

 the clerical error of attributing an orange colour to the legs, 

 though further on he alludes to them as red. The latter is 

 the correct shade. 



To my former notes and Hudson's fuller account I find 

 but little to add, and that solely in connection with the 

 nesting-habits. 



At the time I wrote in 1880 I had taken but one or two 

 individual nests (by which I mean isolated or solitary cases) ; 

 indeed, since then I have not chronicled more than two other 

 similar instances. Finally, but for the fact that I took all 

 four personally, I would have questioned their identity : 

 firstly, because of their similarity to the Lapwing (Vanellus 

 grisescens Fv^z?i\C) ; and secondly, because the Stilt nests in 

 communities — a fact of which Hudson is either unaware or 

 has forgotten to put on record. I saw the sitting-birds 

 leave the four nests alluded to, and the latter were so 

 situated amidst mud and water that the eggs had to be 

 placed upon a bed of roots, samphire-stems, and decayed 

 water-vegetation, which is a resource rarely adopted by the 

 Lapwing. 



Given the abundance and general distribution of the Stilt 

 in our locality, and the suitability of the terrain for the 

 formation of nesting-colonies, it is surprising that those 

 that have come under my notice should be so singularly few. 

 As the nest is in the open, and not of necessity in very retired 

 localities, whilst the birds themselves are particularly 



