XXXYI. 



FAMILY HIMANTOPADID^E. 



AT one time the Stilts were ranked with the Plovers and Sandpipers as members of one family, but 

 Gould recognised such startling - differences in them, that he decided to raise them to the distinction 

 of a separate family. Stilts are to be found in many parts of both the Old and New Worlds. 



GENUS HIMANTOPUS (Brisson). 



OF the five species comprising this genus, one is found in Europe, India, and Africa, one in North 

 America, one in South America, one in Australia, and one in New Zealand. 



HIMAXTOPUS LEUCOCEPHALUS. 



WHITE-HEADED STILT. Gems: Himantopus. 



A TALL, slender, graceful bird, of proportions so delicate that the long legs would seem quite out of 



keeping with the small body, were not its carriage so easy and well poised that no incongruity is 



noticeable. It associates in small flocks of from six to twenty in number, haunting shallow streams and 

 adding much to the beauty of the scenery. 



It runs easily and lightly, showing many graceful actions ; on the wing, on the contrary, it is 

 heavy and clumsy, and presents a most inelegant appearance, with its long legs streaming out behind it. 



The food consists entirely of insects, and small snails found on the water's margin, or captured 

 by wading knee-deep into the stream. 



The Stilt is commonly found over the whole of Australia, both on the coast and inland, though 

 it is most plentiful on the inland lakes of the southern districts. 



Of its breeding habits nothing was known till Dr. Ramsay's untiring observations threw some 

 light upon the interesting subject. He says: "As nothing seems to have been published upon the 

 nidification of this fine species, I beg leave to offer a few remarks upon the subject. The Stilted Plover 

 must be considered rather a scarce than a rare bird in New South Wales, its visits being few and far 

 between. When it does come, however, which is usually in some very dry or remarkably wet season, it 

 appeal's in great numbers and in all stages of plumage. In 1865 large flocks arrived in company with the 

 Straw-necked and White Ibises (Geronticus spinicollis and Threshiornis strictipennis), and took up their 

 abode in the lagoons and swamps in the neighbourhood of Grafton, on the Clarence River, where on my 

 visit to that district in September last (i860), all three species were still enjoying themselves. A few 

 days previously to my arrival in Grafton, a black in the employ of Mr. J. Macgillivray, and a very intelligent 

 collector, discovered a nest of this species containing four eggs, which have been secured for our collection. 

 The nest was a slight structure, consisting merely of a few short pieces of rushes and grass, placed in and 

 around a depression at the foot of a clump of rushes growing near the water's edge of a lagoon in the 

 neighbourhood of South Grafton. The eggs vary slightly in form, two being pyriform, the other two rather 

 long. The ground colour is of a yellowish-olive or light yellowish-brown — lighter when freshly taken — in 

 some sparingly, in others thickly blotched and spotted with umber and black, the black spots running together 

 and forming large patches on the thick ends. 



