288 



HIMANTOPUS. 



* # * Aberrant Avocet. 



HIMANTOPUS PECTORALIS 



BANDED AVOCET. (Plate XIV.) 

 Diagnosis. Himantopus scapularibus omnino brunneis : interscapular^ albo. 



Synonymy. 



Lit erature. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Variations. No local races of this species are known, but in young in first plumage and in adults in 

 winter the whole of the underparts are white. 



Recurvirostra leucocephala, Vieillot, N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. iii. p. 103 (1816). 



llecurvirostra orientalis, Cuvier, Rdg. An. i. p. 496 (1817). 



Leptorhynchus pectoralis, Dubus, Mag. Zool. v. pi. 45 (1835). 



Himantopus palniatus, Gould, Syn. Birds Austr. ii. pi. 14 (1837). 



Cladorhynchus pectoralis (Dubus), Gray, List Gen. Birds, p. 69 (1810). 



Cladorbynchus orientalis (Cuv.), Selys-Longchamps, Bull. d'Ac. Boy. Belg. xviii. pt. i. p. 9 



(1851). 

 Himantopus pectoralis (Dubus), Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Scolopaces, p. 108 (1864). 

 Cladorhynchus leucocephalus (Vieill.), Harting, Ibis, 1874, p. 252. 



Plates. — Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 26. 



Habits. — Gould, Handb. B. Austr. ii. p. 248. 



Eggs. — Campbell, Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds, p. 55. 



The Banded Avocet may be distinguished at all ages and seasons by its white mantle 

 and brown scapulars, a combination found in no other species of the genus. A second and 

 equally good diagnosis is webbed feet, but no hind toe. In breeding-plumage the lower 

 breast is chestnut, shading into a brown ventral band. 



It is a resident in the southern half of Australia, and has occurred in Tasmania. 



The Banded Avocet is the sole representative of the Semi-Avoeets, which I have 

 endeavoured to show probably emigrated from the Polar Basin along the Pacific coast of 

 Asia. If Ave regard its white mantle, the great amount of white on its wing, and its deeplv 

 webbed toes as important characters we must unhesitatingly pronounce it to be an Avocet ; 

 but the straightness of its bill, the absence of any white on its scapulars, and the fact that 

 it has only three toes are all arguments in favour of enrolling it amongst the Stilts. 

 Inasmuch as Nature has not drawn a hard-and-fast line between the Avocets and the Stilts, 

 it must surely be unwise for the scientific ornithologist to attempt to do so. 



