178 



along the fringe of a lagoon, posturing as it were from time to time, and assuming a variety of 

 artistic attitudes. But, although endowed with such phenomenal stilts, I have never seen them 

 wade into deep water — as a rule, just far enough in shallow water to cover the feet — and, 

 although Dame Nature must have a wise purpose in everything, it is difficult to imaoine 

 what practical benefit the long legs are to the owner in the general economy of life. 



Dr. Sharpe declares (' Catalogue of British Museum ') that we have, all along, been 

 mistaken in considering our bird the same as H. leucocephalus, of Australia. He states that none 

 of the specimens in the British Museum referable to that species have come from New Zealand. 

 He considers our bird specifically distinct : and I accept his conclusion. 



Young. — A specimen in the Southland Museum has the back brownish-black ; the foreneck 

 and the underparts white. 



Dr. Forbes treats our bird as a sub-species of H. leucocephalus, a view from which I entirely 

 dissent. 



Mr. Bobert A. Wilson, of Bulls, writes me : " Both the Pied Stilt and the Bed-breasted 

 Dottrel nest freely on the river-bank here [Bangitikei] . They build very low, and their nests are 

 often, on that account, destroyed by floods. One pair of Stilts had their nest destroyed three 

 times in succession in one year, but they formed a fourth, and reared a brood." 



Obder CHAEADEIIFOEMES] . 



[Family CHAEADEIID^E. 



HIMANTOPUS LEUCOCE PH ALUS. 



(WHITE-HEADED STILT.) 



Himantopus leucocephalus, Gould; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, (in part) vol. ii., p. 21. 



De. Shaepe has shown that our black-and-white Stilt-Plover is distinct from the Australian 

 species and has referred it to Himantopus picatus, Ellman. The range of this species does 

 not extend further north than the Hawke's Bay district. But, there is at least one well 

 authenticated instance of the occurrence of the true Himantopus leucocephalus in New Zealand 

 — doubtless a straggler from Australia. It was shot in the Lower Waikato district, near the city 

 of Auckland and was preserved by the local taxidermist, Mr. C. Winch, in 1854. I had many 

 opportunities of examining it, immediately after it was skinned, and satisfied myself of its 

 absolute identity with the Australian bird. I have long had a suspicion that the southern form 

 was distinct. 



