52 
WADING BIRDS. 
BLACK-NECKED STILT. 
Himantopus mexicanus. 
Char. Legs bright pink and exceedingly long; bill black, slender, 
and longer than the head; crown, back of neck, back, and wings black; 
forehead, patch over the eyes, throat, and under parts white. Length 
about 15 inches. 
Nest. On marshy margin of stream or pond ; a slight depression in 
the turf, lined with dry grass. Sometimes — if the ground is very wet — a 
high platform is built, of weed-stems and twigs. 
3-4; pale olive or greenish buff, spotted with brownish black; 
size exceedingly variable, average about 1.75 X 1.20. 
The Black-necked Stilt is common to many parts of South 
as well as North America ; it is known at any rate to inhabit 
the coast of Cayenne, Jamaica, and Mexico. In the United 
States it is seldom seen but as a straggler as far to the north 
as the latitude of 41°. About the 25th of April, according 
to Wilson, the Stilts arrive on the coast of New Jersey in 
small flocks of twenty or thirty together. These again sub- 
divide into smaller parties, but they still remain gregarious 
through the breeding-season. Their favorite residence is in 
the higher and more inland parts of the greater salt-marshes, 
which are interspersed and broken up with shallow pools, not 
usually overflowed by the tides during summer. In these 
places they are often seen wading up to the breast in water, 
in quest of the larvae, spawn, flies, and insects which constitute 
their food. 
In the vicinity of these bare places, among thick tufts of 
grass, small associations of six or eight pair take up their 
residence for the breeding-season. They are, however, but 
sparingly dispersed over the marshes, selecting their favorite 
spots, while in large intermediate tracts few or none are to be 
seen. Early in May they begin to make their nests, which 
are at first slightly formed of a mere layer of old grass, just 
sufficient to keep the eggs from the moisture of the marsh ; in 
the course of incubation, however, either to guard against the 
rise of the tides, or for some other purpose, the nest is in- 
