396 Mr. A. E. Knox on the Habits of the Black-winged Stilt . 
attending the occurrence of the individual in question which 
appear to me to be especially worthy of notice, as tending to 
throw some light on its remarkable, and, to the ordinary ob¬ 
server, grotesque external conformation. 
The pond to which I have alluded is very shallow—the depth 
of the water, even at fifteen paces from the shore, scarcely ex¬ 
ceeding a foot. About that distance from the banks, the surface 
was covered with numerous blossoms of the Water Crowfoot 
(Ranunculus aquatilis). On examining these next day, and fre¬ 
quently afterwards during last month, I found them inhabited 
by numerous minute Dipterous and Coleopterous insects (small 
flies, midges, and beetles), comfortably nestled at the bottom of 
the flowers among the stamens, from which, indeed, none but the 
most delicate and attenuated instrument would be capable of 
extracting them without at the same time injuring the blossoms. 
Now, not one of our wading or swimming birds, except the Stilt, 
possesses a beak perfectly adapted to this purpose. But the 
Stilt has a bill almost as finely pointed as that of a Humming¬ 
bird ; and those which make the nearest approach to it, as some 
among the smaller Tringce , want the accompaniment of length 
of limb—that unusual development of tibia and tarsus —to enable 
them to wade to a sufficient distance from the shore. 
The bird was first noticed by an intelligent lad, the son of a 
small farmer of the name of Pearson, while driving the cows 
home to be milked in the evening. It was then standing nearly 
up to its belly in the water, and rapidly extracting the insects 
from the flowers, or, as the boy supposed, picking the petals 
themselves. It allowed him to approach within twenty yards 
before it took flight, when it extended its long red legs behind 
it, after the manner of a heron, and, alighting again on the 
opposite bank, immediately recommenced wading out to the 
water-plants. Young Pearson then hastened home to his father, 
who lives at a short distance from the pond; and the latter, 
hurrying to the spot with a loaded gun, found the bird em¬ 
ployed as before among the flowers of the Water Crowfoot. But 
it was now exceedingly shy and wary of the gun, flying from 
one side of the pond to the other, before Pearson could get 
within shot (but never uttering any cry or sound), so that at 
