(BRAZILIAN STILT.)
+Himantopus nigricollis+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 502
(Pampas); _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 144 (Buenos Ayres);
_Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 314 (Entrerios, Azul, Pampas).
+Himantopus brasiliensis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 144; _iid.
P. Z. S._ 1873 p. 454; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 198 (Buenos
Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 162 (Buenos Ayres).
_Description._--White; line behind each eye, nape, back of neck,
interscapulium, and wings black; a narrow white band divides the
black neck from the black upper back; bill black; feet orange: whole
length 14·0 inches, wing 8·5, tail 3·3, bill from gape 2·5, tarsus
4·2. _Female_ similar.
[Illustration: Head of BRAZILIAN STILT. (P. Z. S. 1873, p. 454.)]
_Hab._ South America.
This bird is resident and common in the Plata district, and is called in
the vernacular _Téru-real_, also _Zancudo_ (stilt). It frequents marshes
and lagoons, and wades in search of food in the shallow water near the
margin. It is lively in its movements, and notwithstanding the great
length of its legs has a pretty, graceful appearance on the ground. On
the wing, however, it is seen at its best, the flight being remarkably
swift and free, while the sharply-pointed glossy-black wings contrast
finely with the snow-white plumage of the body, and the red legs
stretched out straight behind have the appearance of a long slender
tail. Stilts are fond of aerial exercises, pursuing each other with
marvellous velocity through the air, so that a few moments after the
spectator has almost lost sight of them in the sky above they are down
again within a few yards of the surface. While pursuing each other they
constantly utter their excited barking cries, which in tone remind one
of the melodious barking of some hounds.
The nest is made on the low ground close to the water, and consists
merely of a slight lining of dry grass and leaves gathered in a small
depression on the surface; the eggs are four in number, pyriform, dark
olive colour, spotted with brownish black, the spots being very thickly
crowded at the large end. During incubation the male keeps guard and
utters a warning note on the appearance of an enemy, whereupon the
female quits the nest. They also counterfeit lameness to draw a person
from the neighbourhood of the eggs or young; but in a manner peculiar to
this species; for owing to the great length of their legs they cannot
drag themselves along the ground, as ducks, plovers, partridges, and
other birds do. Placing themselves at a distance of forty or fifty yards
from the intruder, but with breast towards him, they flutter about a
foot above the ground, their long legs dangling under them, and appear
as if struggling to rise and repeatedly falling back. If approached they
slowly retire, still fluttering just above the grass and without making
any sound. After the young birds are able to fly they remain with the
parents until the following spring; and sometimes two or three families
associate together, raising the number of the flock to fifteen or twenty
birds. The young have a sharp querulous cry of two notes; the plumage is
brown and pale grey; the eyes black. After nine or ten months the adult
plumage is acquired, not by moulting, but by a gradual change in the
colours of the feathers. By the same gradual process the eye changes
from black to crimson, the outer edge of the iris first assuming a dull
reddish colour, which brightens and widens until the whole iris becomes
of a vivid red.