920 HIMANTOPUS CANDIDUS. 



(1877); Hume, Str. Feath. (B. of Tenass.), 1878, p. 464; Ball, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 229; 



Cripps, t.c. p. 304 ; Hume, ibid. 1879, viii. (List Ind. B.) p. 113. 

 Himantopus intermedins, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 265 (1849, old bird) ; Hume, Str. 



Feath. 1873, p. 248; Adam, ibid. 1874, p. 339; Hume, ibid. 1875, p. 183; Legge, 



t.c. p. 363 ; Butler & Hume, ibid. 1870, p. 18; Scully,. £. c. p. 190; Hume, Xests and 



Eggs, iii. p. 589 (1875). 

 Himantopus autumnalis (Hasselq.), Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 475 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 403 ; 



Von Heuglin, Orn. N.Ost-Afr. ii. p. 1177 (1874); Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. 1875, ix. 



p. 228. 

 Echasse, Buffon, PL Enl. 873 ; Long-legged Plover, Lath. ; Black-winged Stilt ; schwarz- 



fiuglicher Stelzenldufer, German ; Ziguiiiuela, Spanish (Saunders) ; The long-legged 



Avocet, Kelaart ; " Long legs," " Water-Pigeon" Stit-Plover, Europeans in north of 



Ceylon. Kakhshal pacliak, Turki (Scully) ; Pavile-kali, Ceylonese Tamils. 



Adult male and female (Ceylon). Length 13-3 to 15-1 inches ; wing 9-0 to 9-3 ; tail 3"0 to 3'25 ; tarsus 47 to 5-3 : 

 tibia (bare) 2-9 to 3-8 ; middle toe and claw 17 to 1-8 ; bill at front 2-6 to 27, to gape 27 to 3-0. 



Iris scarlet or lake-red ; bill black, sometimes with the extreme tip white ; legs and feet (variable) lake-red or pink- 

 red ; claws black. 



Head, hind neck down to the shoulders, back, rump, upper tail-coverts, entire under surface, axillary plume, and 

 beneath the humerus white, the occiput and nape more or less mingled with iron-grey, caused by the dark bases 

 of the feathers in these parts showing on the surface; anterior margin of the eye dark; interscapular region, 

 scapulars, and wings glossy green-black : tail usually pale greyish white, in some quite white ; under surface of 

 wing coal-black. 



Young. The chick, when leaving the nest, has the bill blackish ; legs and feet greenish olive. Head and nape black, 

 mottled with ochraceous ; upper part of hind neck, forehead, and all beneath white ; lower hind neck, interscapular 

 region, and wings dark olivaceous green, tipped fulvous ; back buff, with velvety-black bars ; tail barred black 

 and buff. 



In the first stage of plumage, during the months of August and September in Ceylon, the iris is salmon-red with dark 

 mottlings ; bill blackish olive, paler at the base of upper mandible, and reddish at the base beneath ; tibia and 

 front of tarsi brownish yellow ; the joints bluish grey ; feet and sides of tarsi brownish. 



Forehead, face, throat, sides of neck and all beneath, back, rump, and upper -tail-coverts white, the latter grey near 

 the tip, with fulvous tips; crown and nape, interscapular region, scapulars, and tertials blackish brown, paling 

 on the hind neck into greyish brown, each feather with a buff-yellow margin ; wing-coverts and quills black, with 

 a green gloss, the coverts edged as the back, the secondaries and inner primaries paling to brownish at the 

 extremities, with white tips ; tail French grey, darkening towards the tip, which is fulvous. 



In the cool season birds of the year have the interscapular region, scapulars, and terminal portion of tertials brown, 

 often margined with greyish ; the nape and hind neck sullied with iron-grey, and the tail and tips of the upper 

 tail-coverts French grey ; the ear-coverts in some greyish and in others white. 



Iris i variable) in some red, in others orange, mottled with deep red ; bill dusky reddish at the base beneath. 



Obs. Many individuals, after assuming the adult plumage on the back and wings, are found with the crown, nape, 

 and cheeks rather dark brown ; the hind neck, at the same time, is uniform mouse-grey. I have seen birds in 

 the autumn with this plumage, which 1 conceive to be that of the second year ; and it is probable that they do not 

 assume the white heads until the third or fourth year. I have found birds breeding with iron-grey heads ; and 

 these were evidently not fully aged individuals. There is in most specimens which 1 have examined a grey 

 appearance about the head and hind neck caused by the dark bases of the feathers ; and I have observed the same 

 thing in European examples. The example figured in Dresser's ' Birds of Europe,' and which I have before me, 

 appears to be abnormally dark on the head and hind ueck. I have never seen such another ; for the parts in ques- 

 tion are almost as black as the back. It is a male ; wing 9-5 inches. Some valuable measurements of Yarkand 

 specimens are given by Dr. Scully, which I append here for comparison: — "Males. Length 14 - S to 15'2 inches; 

 wing 9-6 to 10-2, expanse 28-5 to 31-6 ; tail 2-9 to 3"3 ; bare portion of tibia 33 to 3-5 ; tarsus 4-8 to 5-0 ; 



