Eobert Ball, near Youglial, in the winter of 1828; one was
shot near Lough Mask, County Mayo, in 1886, and one at
Clontarf, Dublin Bay, prior to 1887. t
Denmark, to which it is a rare visitant, appears* to s fee
the northern limit of the Black-winged rStilfe on the Continent;
and throughout Holland and Northém Germany it
can only be looked upon as a straggler, although its eggs
are said to havé once been taken in Anhalt. : B is also
believed to have nested once near Abbeville, in the northof
France, but although well known as a migrant, it is only; in
the south of that country, especially in the marshes of-the
Bhone, that it is found breeding regularly. In the marshy
plains of the Spanish Peninsula it is abundant, especially
in the breeding-season, and eastward i t ' mayhelfound in
suitable localities along both sides of the Mediterranean to
Asia Minor, In the marshes of- the Lower Danube and on
the shores of' the Black Sea it is ’also. common. ‘From the
Canary Islands it can be traced, down the wést .coast of Africa
to Cape -Colony, and as itkis known to 'visit Madagascar,
it probably' occurs on the south-eastern coast of Africa.
Through Persia and Turkestan its range extends to'India
and Ceylon, where;it breeds; to’the Philippine Islands, and
to China, where, however, it has only rarely'been observed.
Its note is a clear peey pee,'tpm-,l and its food cortsisfeïef
gnats,.flies, beetlès, and aquatic insects, in pursuit of which
it wades up to the knees in shallow water. " The eggs,-which
are usually- four ,-in. number, ,of a rich I huffy stone-colour,
spotted and blotched with blackish-brown, measuring about
1 7^ by 1'25 in., are laid early-in May in "Spain and Morth
Africa ; in June qp.tlie Black.Sea^ and, a,s a rule, in thé. latter
month in India. They are generally placed! on ia-'slight
lining of bents,, in a tuft oPgrass,, close do, and almost in,
thé water, so that they are'frequently coated with mud ;llbut
Messrs. Seebohm and Young observed.tbat.dn the marshes
p£ the Black Sea, the nests, -wererbuilt up to the height óf
several inehes, -The latter has furnished thb Editor, with the
following details The nests were placed-on the mud,„generally
from three to,-six-feet from the edge of the watel - one
was ia the shallow water at least six feet from land, another
was among some two or three reeds which grew in the wafel.
The nests were built of small reeds, and were from two to
four inches high—about six inches in diameter at thé top,
increasingto eight at the base—the slight hollow containing
the eggs being lined with finer reeds. Six nests had
four eggs each, one nest had one egg, and one or two were
empty. All the nests were within a space of one hundred
ylpfi/'-'A thick belt of reeds bordered the lake (which was
separated from tie Black Sea by a narrow ridge óf sandj,
leaving a few feet of black stinking mud between them and
the water; it was on- this hare space that the nests were
placed : one clutch of eggs was considerably incubated, the
others^ were nearly fresh.”
Mr. Hume relates a similar habit as observed at some
salt works about five-and-thirty miles south of Delhi, where
the Black-winged Stilt breeds in hundreds, and forms its
nest of small pieces of the broken lime lining of the salt-
pans, "collected into a circular platform from five to seven
inches .in diameter, and ftoru two to three in height, on the
top of which a^ilfl^diy gfafsts placed''(Ibis, 1870, p^l46)‘.
The adult male-has tjhe'beak"black; the irides red; the
whole of the head, the neck round, the brea^^and under
paito* white, with an evanescent '.rosy tail-feathers
greyish-white ; a few dusky streaks behind the egeg^ and .»on
tbe'ccexput; the back and wings nearly black, tinged with
gjgem; the-lege and Joes pink.
- The length of the body is about thirteen inches. From thé
carpail joint to. thé end óf the1 wing, eight ; the first
quill-feather the longest, ^ t
In the females the hack is brownish, and hot tinged with
green. .
* f oung birds have, the feathers of the hack and wingp
brown, edged, with tvhite, and mere dark feathers about the
back of thé-head ; 'me-legs orange.
In the, nestling the down of the upper parts is buf&shj
gtey, mottled with blagk; the under-parts dull white.