Oeber LIMICOL^.] 
[Fam. SCOLOPACIDJE. 
HIMANIOPUS ALBICOLLIS. 
(WHITE-NECKED STILT-PLOVER.) 
IIimantopi(^ albicollis, Buller, Trans. N.-Z. Inst. 'vol. vii. p. 224 (1874). 
• capite toto cum collo uudique et corpore subtus toto albis : interscapulio^ scapularibus cum dorso summo et 
tectricibus alarum nigris ; remigibus anguste albido terminatis : subalaribus nigris : dorso postico et uropygio 
albis : cauda nigra : rostro nigro : pedibus pallidb cruentatis. 
Adult. Head, neck all round, and all tbe under surface of the body, lower part of back, rump, and upper tail- 
coverts pure white ; across the shoulders, scapulars, and upper surfaee of wings glossy black, with greenish 
reflections, the inferior primaries and the secondaries tipped with white ; under surface of wings and the 
axillary plumes black j tail-feathers glossy black. Bill black ; irides red ; legs and feet pinky red. Total 
length 14 25 inches j wing, from flexure, 9'25 ; tail 3 j bill, along the ridge 2‘6, along the edge of lower 
mandible 2-9 ; bare tibia 2'2; tarsus 3' 75; middle toe and claw TS. 
Obs. The specimen from which the above description was taken is undoubtedly an adult bird, and is in a moulting 
condition, the glossy greenish-black feathers of the mantle replacing the brownish-black plumage of an 
earlier state. 
Young. Has the bead and neck as in the adult, but with the crown and nape more or less stained or washed 
with dark grey ; all the feathers of the upper parts narrowly margined with brown. 
More advanced state. The brown margins on the upper surface disappear, tbe plumage changing to dull satiny 
black with a greenish gloss, the clouded markings on the crown and nape, however, remaining unaffected. 
The adolescence of the bird in this condition of plumage is indubitably shown by its swollen tarsi. 
dSote. Through the kind attention of Mr. C. H. Hobson, I have received from Cape Campbell a Plover clearly 
referable to the above species. From the enlarged condition of tbe tarsi below the joint, it is evidently an 
immature bird, and this will account for the crown and hind neck being tinged or faintly mottled with grey, 
these parts being wholly white in the adult. The flanks, rump, and under tail-coverts are clouded with 
black ; tail-feathers on their inner web and towards the base white ; the rest of the plumage as in my type. 
a paper which I communicated to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury “ On the Genus 
Himantofus in New Zealand ” *, I discriminated, under the above name, a form which appeared to 
tae to he specifically distinct from the two preceding ones. 
Five or six specimens have since passed through my hands at various times, but most of these 
were in a somewhat immature condition of plumage, thus raising in my mind a doubt as to whether 
this bird may not, after all, be merely a seasonal state of H. novae zealandiw. 
Mr. Seebohm is of opinion that my Ilimantopus albicollis is in reality the almost cosmopolitan 
II. nielanopten'us, and in his latest work, on the Charadriidse, he accordingly states, as a fact, that the 
latter species has been met with in New Zealand. It has been known to occur in the Philippine 
Islands, and there would be nothing extraordinary in a few stragglers finding their way, at irregular 
interva.s, to New Zealand. But after carefully examining the extensive series of specimens in the 
British Museum, I find it impossible to accept his determination of the species. Among other minor 
E 2 
* Trans. A.-Z. Inst. vol. vii. pp. 220-224. 
