CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 7. GRALLATORES. 
281 
America. The Wandering Tatler — HeterosceliLS hrevipes of Baird — is found along the Pacific 
coast and Northeastern Asia. 
Genus RECURVIROSTRA : Recurvirostra. This inckides the Avocets or Avosets. The Avo- 
CET of Europe, B.avocetta — sometimes called Scoojjer and Cobbler'' s-aiol-Duck in England — is a very 
curious bird, Avith a long bill, turned upward, and appearing like a thin piece of whalebone ; legs 
long and semipalmated, furnishing a support in walking over the mud ; length eighteen inches ; 
color white, with black on the wings and neck ; food, worms, aquatic insects, and thin-skinned 
Crustacea, which the bird seizes with admirable dexterity in the mud with its slender, sensitive 
bill. The nest is made in a depression in a dry part of the marshes ; eggs two. It has an incessant 
cry of tivit, tivit. It is migratory, and distributed in Europe, Africa, and Asia ; breeds in Great 
Britain. There are two or three other foreign species. 
The American Avocet, JR. Americana — called Blue- Stocking in New Jersey- — is eighteen 
inches long ; color white ; tail tinged with pale ash ; back and wings black ; bill four inches long, 
and unlike the preceding, turns up along nearly its whole length, and at the tip turns down, and 
ends in a fine point; ranges from the tropics to 68° north; breeds in New Jersey; migrates 
north in May and south in October. 
Gmus HIMANTOPUS : Himantopus.—TMs includes the Stilts, remarkable for the length 
of their legs. The European or 
Black-winged Stilt, H. melan- 
o^yterus — Echasse of the French — 
is about fourteen inches long ; the 
legs extremely long and slender ; it 
runs easily on the land, and flies 
with great swiftness. It frequents 
the borders of the sea, and feeds on 
worms and small mollusca, and 
makes its nest in marshes, laying- 
four bluish-green eggs ; found, 
though not abundantly, in Eastern 
Europe; migrates to Asia and Af- 
rica in Avinter, The White-head- 
ed Stilt of Australia is described 
by Gould as associating in flocks of 
six to twenty, and running along 
the streams, and often knee-deep 
in watei', with admirable ease and 
grace. 
The American Stilt, H, nigri- 
collis, is thirteen and a half inches 
long ; general color dark sooty 
brown ; ranges from Mexico to 
Massachusetts, and is a Avinter res- 
ident from Carolina southwardly. De Kay says : "It is known under the various names of Tilt^ 
Stilt^ Longshanlcs^ and Laicyer. The origin of this last popular name, which is most in use, I 
have not been able to discover. There appears to be nothing unusual in the length of its bilV 
Genus MICROPALAMA : Micropalama. — This includes the Long-legged or Stilt Sand- 
piper, M. liimantopus ; nine inches long, and found throughout North America. 
Genus LIMOSA : Limosa. — This includes the Godwits, noted for long bills slightly turned 
upward, and long legs. The Black-tailed God wit, L. melanura, is sixteen inches long ; dark 
brown above ; beneath white, barred with rufous brown ; found throughout Europe in spring and 
summer ; frequent on the fens of Lincolnshire, England, Avhere the bird-catchers occasionally fat 
them on bread and milk for market. The Bar-tailed Godavit, L. rufa^ is a European species, 
chiefly distinguished from the preceding by having shorter legs. 
Vol. II.— 36 
THE BLACK-WINGED STILT. 
