3 44 L ONG-LEGGED A VOSE T. 



LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. (Becurvirostra 

 himantopus.) 



PLATE LVIII.— Fig. 2. 



Long-legged Plover, Arct. Zool. p. 487, No. 405. — Turton, p. 416. — Bewick, ii. 

 21.— L'Echasse, Buff. viii. 114, PI. enl, 878.— Peale's Museum, No. 4210. 



MIMANTOPUS NIGRICOLLIS.— Vtevlwt* 



Himantopus Mexicanus, Ord's edit, of Wils. — Himantopus nigricollis, Bonap. 

 Synop. p. 322. 



Naturalists have most unaccountably classed this bird with 

 the genus Charadrius, or plover, and yet affect to make the 

 particular confirmation of the bill, legs, and feet, the rule 

 of their arrangement. In the present subject, however, ex- 

 cepting the trivial circumstance of the want of a hind toe, 

 there is no resemblance whatever of those parts to the bill, 

 legs, or feet, of the plover ; on the contrary, they are so en- 

 tirely different, as to create no small surprise at the adoption 

 and general acceptation of a classification evidently so absurd 

 and unnatural. This appears the more reprehensible, when 

 we consider the striking affinity there is between this bird and 

 the common avoset, not only in the particular form of the 

 bill, nostrils, tongue, legs, feet, wings, and tail, but extend- 

 ing to the voice, manners, food, place of breeding, form of 

 the nest, and even the very colour of the eggs of both, all of 

 which are strikingly alike, and point out at once, to the 

 actual observer of Nature, the true relationship of these 

 remarkable birds. 



Strongly impressed with these facts, from an intimate 



Wilson confounded this species with, the long-legged plover of 

 Europe, and ranged it with the Avosets. Mr Ord, in his reprint, placed 

 it in the genus Himantopus, properly established for these birds, but 

 under the name Mexicanus. The Prince of Musignano is of opinion 

 that it cannot range under this, being much smaller, and refers it to 

 the H. nigricollis of Vieillot. The genus contains only a few species, 

 all so closely allied, that near examination is necessary to distinguish 

 them. They are all remarkable for the great disproportion of their 

 legs. —Ed. 



