284 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
margins of ponds, when they are well constructed to reach above the surface of the 
water. Eggs: 3 to 5, olive or buffy clay color, superficial markings deep reddish 
brown or brownish black, deeper ones gray or lavender; or olive-green spotted with 
chocolate. 
Food. —Among the items of economic importance, weevils, bill-bugs that feed 
on corn, large numbers of grasshoppers, and considerable numbers of several species 
of predacious diving beetles, which prey upon the insect food of fish and so are 
counted a nuisance in fish hatcheries; also crawfish that injure dikes; brine shrimps, 
the larvae and pupae of alkali flies, and mosquito larvae. “They should be protected 
and encouraged generally” (Wctmore). 
General Habits. —The spectacular Black-necked Stilts have what 
has been pointed out as the conspicuous recognition pose by other 
shore-birds and gulls, their long black, pointed wings being held high 
over their backs a moment on alighting, when they can be seen from a 
distance. The wings are also held up sometimes when they are chasing 
insects, as it is suggested, to make quick turns and tacks. The appar¬ 
ently disproportionate length of the extreme^ slender, stilt-like legs, 
though appearing useless on land, Doctor Wetmore points out, “come in 
good play when the birds wade in the shallows. It is there they seek 
their food, walking about in water at times nearly up to their bodies” 
(1927b, p. 376). Their intelligence in increasing the height of the 
nest to keep it from being flooded by rising water has placed them in 
the first rank of water birds, if they are not absolutely unique in this 
practice. Their eggs are sometimes found in a nest with those of the 
Avocet. 
They are among the most interesting birds of New Mexico and I 
shall not soon forget one seen near Carlsbad standing in pitiful help¬ 
lessness with one of the long, pink legs, with which Nature endowed 
it, mutilated, dangling—crippled by some thoughtless passerby. 
In southern California, when we had been watching the White¬ 
faced Glossy Ibises, a Black-necked Stilt flew in and lit, stilted up on 
its long pink legs with black wings raised over its black and white body. 
“It came out on the edge of the lagoon and ran up and down with a 
nervous, nasal en, en, making itself so conspicuous that we quickly 
arrived at a conclusion. As we advanced it was joined by five other 
anxious parents. And three pairs of Black-necked Stilts can make as 
much excitement as two hundred and fifty ducks! The whole dis¬ 
turbance, so far as revealed, was due to the fact that three half-grown 
young were running around trying to hide on a narrow grassy spit of 
land between the lake and the lagoon. One Stilt, in its calmest 
moments, is enough to occupy all one’s attention, running along the 
shore with airily hinging legs, or wading out in the water on its long 
pink stilts. But when six anxious parents fly around you with long 
necks and long legs extended, distractedly crying en, en , or bursting 
