STILT would be a peculiarly appropriate name for this bird, with its
excessively long legs, were it less graceful and dignified in its walk,
moving on land with easy and measured tread, not in a "tremulous manner,"
says Col. Goss, as stated by some writers.
The Stilt is an inhabitant of temperate North America, from New Brunswick,
Maine, Minnesota and Oregon southward; south in winter to Peru, Brazil, and
West Indies. It is rare in the middle and western provinces, except
Florida, also along the Pacific coast; breeding in suitable localities and
in abundance in western Texas, southern Colorado, Utah, eastern Colorado,
and southern Oregon. Extensive as is the range of the Stilt, we wonder how
many of our readers have ever had the pleasure of seeing even a picture of
one. The specimen depicted in BIRDS is regarded by experts as about as
nearly perfect as art can produce. It will be observed that the eyes are
alive in expression, as, indeed, are those of all our specimens that have
appeared in recent numbers.
This slender wader inhabits the shores of bays, ponds, and swales where
scantily covered with short grasses. It swims buoyantly and gracefully, and
on land runs swiftly, with partially raised wings, readily tacking or
stopping in its chase after insect life. Its flight, says Goss, is not very
swift, but strong and steady, with sweeping strokes, legs fully extended
and head partially drawn back, after the manner of the Avocet, (see BIRDS,
Vol. II, p. 15), and like the latter, will often meet one a long distance
from its nest, scolding and threatening. At such times its legs are as
fully extended as its legs, the latter often dangling as it retreats.
The food of the Black-necked Stilt consists of insects, minute shell fish
and larvae, and various small forms of life. The birds are social, usually
living and breeding in small flocks.
The nests of these birds--when placed on dry, sandy land--are slight
depressions worked out to fit the body; on wet lands they are upon bunches
or masses of vegetation. Eggs three or four, buff to brownish-olive,
irregularly but rather thickly splashed and spotted with blackish brown.
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