Plate CCCXXVIII. Male.
Bill black; feet lake-coloured; upper part of head, fore part and
sides of neck, and all the lower parts, together with the hind part of
the back, rump, and tail, white, the middle feathers of the latter
tinged with ash-grey; hind neck, fore part of back, scapulars, wings,
and lower wing-coverts, bluish-black, glossed with green. Young
individuals have only the forehead white, and the back greyish-brown.
_Male_, 14-1/2, 27. _Female_, 14, 25-3/4.
Rather common in Texas during spring. Breeds on different parts of the
Atlantic coast, as far as Long Island. A few spend the winter about
the mouths of the Mississippi. Migratory.
Long-legged Avocet, Recurvirostra Himantopus, Wils. Amer. Orn.
v. vii. p. 48.
Himantopus nigricollis, Bonap. Syn. p. 322.
Black-necked Stilt, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 8.
Black-necked Stilt, Himantopus nigricollis, Aud. Orn. Biog. v.
iv. p. 247.
GENUS X. NUMENIUS, Briss. CURLEW.
Bill very long, slender, subcylindrical, slightly compressed, more or
less arcuate or decurved; upper mandible with the ridge broad and
flattened at the base, broad and rounded in the rest of its extent, a
deep groove running from the nostrils to near the tip, which is
decurved, enlarged so as to form an oblong obtuse knob, projecting
beyond the point of the lower mandible, the edges rounded; lower
mandible similar in its curvature to the upper, its angle extremely
narrow, and extending to near the middle, the ridge rounded, the
sides with a shallow groove to near the end, the edges directly
meeting those of the upper, the tip obtuse. Head rather small, oblong,
compressed; neck long; body compact. Feet long; tibia bare below;
tarsus scaly above, scutellate for two-thirds; toes rather small,
scutellate, first very small, lateral nearly equal. Claws small,
compressed, blunted. Wings long, very acute, the first quill longest,
some of the inner secondaries greatly elongated. Tail short, much
rounded, of twelve rounded feathers.