106 Birds of Colorado 
dimensions but in colour and shape. Dille gives June 
12th as an average date for fresh eggs; Henshaw at 
San Luis Lakes found by June 2lst most of the eggs 
already hatched, but Goss took a clutch of four at the 
same place as late as July 5th. 
Genus HIMANTOPUS. 
Bill very long, slender and pointed, about twice as long as the middle 
toe and claw; tail short; legs very long, stretching far beyond the 
wings and tail; tarsus about three times the length of the middle toe 
and claw, covered with a fine network of hexagonal scales ; hind toe 
absent, front toes moderate, basally webbed. 
An almost cosmopolitan genus with about seven species; only one 
is found in North America. 
Black-necked Stilt. Himantopus mexicanus. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 226—Colorado Records—Henshaw 75, p. 450; 
Drew 81, p. 18; Morrison 89, p. 167; Cooke 97, p. 64; Henderson 
03, p. 234; 09, p. 227; Rockwell 08, p. 159; Felger 09, p. 287; 
Hersey & Rockwell 09, p. 115. 
Description.—Adult female—Above, including the crown, sides of the 
face round the eye, back of the neck, centre of the back and wings, 
glossy black ; below, including the front of the face, a spot above and 
behind the eye, rump and upper tail-coverts white; tail pearly-grey ; 
iris red, bill black, legs red drying yellow. Length 14:0; wing 8-5; 
tail 2-4; culmen 2:3; tarsus 3-9. 
The male is rather larger—wing 9-25; culmen 2-70. Young birds 
have the upper-parts ashy-brown, the feathers margined with buffy 
or whitish, and the tail with dusky markings. 
Distribution.—Breeding chiefly from Minnesota and Oregon to Florida 
and Texas, south in winter as far as Peru and the West Indies. 
The Stilt is apparently a rare bird in Colorado, except in the south. 
It was first found nesting in the State by Henshaw at the San Luis 
Lakes many years ago, and the only other definite notices of its occur- 
rence are those of Rockwell, who quotes Miss Eggleston to the effect 
that it is an irregular and rather rare migrant at Grand Junction, and 
cf Hersey and Rockwell who once saw it at Barr. Neither Gale, Carter 
nor G. W. Smith mentions it, nor does it appear to reach Wyoming. 
Henderson’s Boulder record seems a doubtful one, but there is an 
example in the State Historical Society’s Collection at Denver, shot 
near Fort Logan in April, 1899 (Felger). 
