Birds of Celebes: Charadriirlae. 759 



Lake Limbotto, but has, apparently, been much more rarely obtained on the 

 better known Lake of Tondano. In Australia Gould found it feeding on insects 

 and small shelled snails; it runs with grace and celerity, but flies heavily, 

 uttering a plaintive piping cry. Its long red legs are adapted for wading, and 

 by them and by its black and white plumage it may be easily distinguished 

 from other Celebesian birds. 



Seebohm (22) recognised 11 sjoecies of Stilts and Avocets, of which the 

 latter, numbering 5 species, are usually separated generically (Recurvirostra) 

 in virtue of their Avebbed feet and remarkably thin and strongly upcurved bills. 

 The present species has, perhaps, its nearest connections with the Himantopus 

 candi(his Bonn, of temperate Europe, Africa, and Asia, but may be distinguished 

 from it and the other similar Stilts by its entirely white head. In H. candidus 

 and the others the black of the hind neck passes on to some part of the crown 

 or face. But the distribution of the black and white on the head and neck appears 

 to change in a remarkable way with age, and might form a profitable field for 

 study. In New Zealand a melanotic form occurs, producing a young one much 

 like the young H. leucocephalus. 



GENUS TOTANUS Bclist. 



Tarsus longer than the middle toe and claw, transversely scutellated before 

 and behind; a small hallux; bill longer than the head, slender, straight, or 

 slightly recm-ved or decurved, no dertrum, but the nasal groove never encroach- 

 ing into the terminal third; the loral plumes growing considerably in front of 

 the gape; tail longer than the tarsus or equal to it, white at least at the base, 

 as are often the lower back and rump also; wing rather long, about twice the 

 length of the shorter secondaries, the inner secondaries much lengthened. 



Migratory; almost cosmopolitan. 



^ 325. TOTANUS GLOTTIS (L.). 



Greenshank. 



a. Scolopax glottis (1) Liun., S. N. 1766, I, 245; (2) Gm., S. N. 1788, I, 664. 



b. Scolopax nebularius (1) Gunner, in Leem, Lap. Beskr. 1769, 251 (fide Stejneger). 



c. Totanus canescens (1) Gm., S. N. 1788, I, 668. 



Totanus glottis (1) Bechst., Orn. Taschenb. 1803, n, 287; (II) Naum., Vog. Deutschl. 

 1836, Vin, 145, t. 201; (III) Gould, B. Europe IV, pi. 312; (4) Schl., Mus. 

 P.-B., Scolopaces, 1864, 61; f5,J Wald., Tr. Z. S. 1872, Vm, 97; (6) Salvad., Cat. 

 Ucc. Borneo 1874, 328; (7) AVald., Tr. Z. S. 1875, IX, 234; (8) David & Oust., 

 Ois. Chine 1877, 462; (9) Hume & Davis., Str. F. 1878, VI, 4G3; ('/Oj Oust., Bull. 

 See. Philom. 1878, 186; (ll) Milne-Edw. & Grandid., Ois. Madag. 1879, 1, 630; 

 (12) Rosenb., Malay. Arcliip. 1878, 278; (13) Meyer, Ibis 1879, 143; (U) Legge, 

 B. Ceylon 1880, 840; (15) Rosenb., Zool. Garten 1881, 167; (16) Seeb., B. Gt. 

 Brit. 1885, m, 149; (17) id., Distr. Charadr. 1887, 355; (18) Everett, J. Str. Br. 



