Occiput, nape, back, and wings, black: rest of the plumage white.

H. melanopterus, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. 11. p. 528. Long-legged Plover, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. 11. p. 476. White, Nat. Hist. Selb. vol. 11. p. 84. with fig. Mont. Orn. Diet. Shaw, Nat. Misc. vol. vi. pl. 195. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. 1. p. 365. Black-winged Stilt, Selb. Illust. vol. 11. p. 247. pl. 39*.

Dimensions

Entire length thirteen inches: length of the bill two inches six lines; of the naked part of the tibia three inches six lines; of the tarsus four inches six lines: breadth, wings extended, two feet five inches.

Description

Occiput and nape black, the latter sometimes whitish with dusky streaks; back and wings glossy black, with greenish reflections: forehead, sides of the face, neck, and all the under parts, pure white, slightly tinged on the breast and belly with rose-red: rump white: tail cinereous gray; the outer feathers white: bill black; irides crimson: legs vermilion red. In very old males, according to Temminck, the nape, and sometimes the occiput also, is perfectly white. (Female). Smaller; the black on the back and wings inclining more to brown, and without the greenish gloss. (Young). Crown, occiput, and nape, dusky ash; back and wings brown; all the feathers with whitish edges: legs orange-red. (Egg). Pale blue, blotched and streaked with ash green and red brown: long. diam. one inch nine lines; trans, diam. one inch three lines.

A very rare and accidental visitant in this country. Sibbald mentions a pair which were killed in Scotland. Pennant has recorded another which was shot near Oxford; and White, in his Nat. Hist, of Selborne, speaks of five which were shot out of a flock of six on the verge of Frin-sham pond, near Farnham in Surrey, in April 1779. Has also been killed in Anglesea, and more recently in Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Said to be not uncommon in the eastern parts of Europe, frequenting the borders of rivers and lakes. Breeds in the salt marshes of Hungary and Russia. Food, tadpoles, aquatic and other insects, etc.