CHAPTEE IY. 
THE BLACKWINGED STILT 
(Himantopus rufipes ). 
“ Bald am Fluss und Meere scliwebend, 
Bald die rothen Steltzen liebend, 
Gibt er Augenweide 
In dem weiss und schwarzen Kleide. 
Docb wir sebn an tiefen Stellen 
Oft auch reiten auf den Wellen 
Diesen Flutgesellen, 
Baschen Flieger, Strandbescbreiter, 
S teltz enlaufer, Wasserreiter. ” 
Welcker. 
Only a naturalist can understand the intense pleasure 
which I experienced when, on one of my first shooting 
expeditions in Egypt, I saw a dozen of these creatures, 
the longest-legged of all birds, quietly and undisturbedly 
wading in a village pond. This bird always used to strike 
my attention as a boy, when I saw it in my father’s 
collection; and lo, now, there it was before me, alive, 
striding about as if on stilts. My newly-found friend 
awakened just as much interest in my breast as did the 
Pyramids,—those antique wonders of the world. 
The Blackwinged Stilt is a shore bird, mounted on the 
longest of stilts, as its name implies. This is sufficient 
description. For that it is black on the back and occiput, 
with a tinge of metallic-green, and is otherwise white; 
