Bird lore - Project Puffin

Black -necked Stilt 397
Barrows regards them as rare in Michigan and Kumlien reports them as rare
stragglers in Wisconsin, but many observers record them as common in Minne-
sota. About the alkaline lakes and ponds of the Great Basin, farther west, they
are continually seen, often in company with the Avocet. In some of the irri-
gated valleys of California these birds are very plentiful.
The food of the Stilt consists of small water-snails, insects, and worms. To
properly prepare for digestion the harder articles of its food the bird is pro-
vided with a toughly lined stomach, or gizzard. McAtee has made the inter-
esting discovery that the Stilt, as is the case with some other birds, at times
sloughs this leathery coating.
Although this wader is now very rare in the eastern United States, it
still persists in goodly numbers in the West and South, and under the protec-
tion that seems assured to it by the new Federal migratory-bird law, the
species should long survive to give grace and beauty to many of the waste
places of the continent.
Most of the individuals of this species leave the United States in autumn,
comparatively few remaining along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico until the
returning flight in spring again sweeps them northward to their breed-
ing-grounds.
CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION
The Black-necked Stilt l^^ongs to the Order LimicoUc and the Family Rccitrvirostridce.
Its scientific name is Ilimaulopus mexicanus. It ranged originally over all North
and Central America, and the northern part of South America. It breeds from Oregon,
Colorado and the Gulf coast southward throughout the West Indies and Me.xico to
Brazil and Peru; and winters from the southwestern border of the United States
southward.