The Black-Winged Stilt. 



97 



Sicily, Sardinia, Northern Africa, the Dobrudscha, Turkey, and the Black Sea 

 basin generally, the vicinity of the Caspian and Aral Seas, in Palestine (in 

 small numbers), India and Ceylon, and Central Asia, as far east as China (where, 

 however, it has not yet been found breeding, yet it must do so, as it occurs 

 there in April and May, and I have the skin of quite a young bird, described 

 below, from thence). In Central and Northern Europe it occurs as a straggler, 

 but does not appear to reach Norway, Sweden, or Finland. In Africa, as well 

 as breeding in the North, and Madagascar, it is found as a migrant down to 

 the extreme south. With us it seems to occur at any time of the year. 



Colour of adult male (Foochow, i8, 4, '86) : bill black, af inches long ; 

 iris bright red, almost carmine ; crown and nape black, extending to the ear- 

 coverts ; forehead, neck, shoulders, lower back and under parts, including 

 axillaries, white, with a rosy tinge on shoulders and breast, which Saunders 

 calls evanescent, but which is quite perceptible on my ten-year-old skin — day- 

 light, however, would probably destroy it long before this length of time ; 

 upper part of back, scapulars and wings (above and below), jet black, with a 

 bottle-green reflection (purple in some lights) on the upper parts ; white shafts 

 to the secondary quills ; tail light ash-grey ; feet and legs very long, rose- 

 pink; claws black. Length 14 inches, closed wing gf. The black on the 

 head vanishes in very old males. The female has the back tinged with brown, 

 and no green sheen. 



In young birds (Foochow, October 24th, '85) the crown is grey, as are 

 also the back of the neck and shoulders, the feathers of the latter tipped with 

 white ; wings brown, median coverts edged with rufous ; the inner primaries 

 and secondaries have broad white tips, which disappear entirely in adult dress ; 

 iris brown ; legs bluish flesh colour. I have given this description at some 

 length, as I know of none elsewhere of this state of plumage. 



Upper parts of nestling (d.d. H. E. Dresser, Seville, June 1889) dark grey, 

 mottled with light grey; a great deal of rufous on back and crown, in the 

 form of broad tips to the down ; under parts white. There are considerable 

 swellings of the legs, in the upper part of the tarsus especially, which is 

 double in diameter to the lower half This shews itself to a less degree in 

 the older bird described above. See the Norfolk Plover. 



Like the Avocet, the Stilt breeds in colonies, but makes a much more 

 ambitious nest, especially in wet places. In Spain (teste Chapman) they make 

 a " fairly solid nest of dead black stalks of tamarisk, etc." And Hume states 

 that in India they build a platform of scraps of lime, on the margins of 

 evaporation pans in which salt is made, some three inches high by seven or 



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