Subfamily HIMANTOPODINÆ.
Genus HIMANTOPUS Brisson, 1760.
Bill long, slender, straight, and pointed; wing long and slender, reaching well beyond tip of tail, first primary much the longest; tail short and square; legs extremely long and slender; bare portion of tibia equal to three-fourths of tarsus, the latter two and one-half times as long as middle toe with claw; toes webbed at base; hind toe wanting.
98. HIMANTOPUS LEUCOCEPHALUS Gould.
AUSTRALIAN STILT.
- Himantopus leucocephalus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1837), 26; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 317; Hand-List (1899), 1, 156; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 34; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 24.
Basilan (McGregor); Mindanao (Cuming, Everett, Steere Exp., Celestino). Greater Sunda Islands, Moluccas, Australia, New Guinea.
Male.—A narrow black collar on hind neck; entire wings, their coverts, and scapulars glossy black; rest of the plumage white. Bill and nails black; legs and feet bright red, said to be pink in life. Length, about 350; wing, 220; tail, 77; exposed culmen, 59; tarsus, 126.
Female.—Smaller and the scapulars dark brown. Wing, 210; tail, 75; exposed culmen, 58; tarsus, 110.
“Young.—Brown on the upper back and inner secondaries; the hind neck, from the nape to the mantle, ashy gray, mottled with dusky subterminal bars to the feathers; crown dull ashy gray; lores and fore part of face white like the under surface of the body.” (Sharpe.)