BYGONE BIRDING: THE DAY SUSSEX RECORDED ITS FIRST BLACK-WINGED STILT

Black-winged stilt - bill "as finely pointed as a hummingbird"

                                      
In early summer, 1859, a pond near Chichester in Sussex briefly played host to a  rare and elegant wading bird - a Black-winged stilt. This is A.E. Knox's  account, originally published in The Ibis magazine, of what happened to it.

On the 17th of May last, a specimen of the Black-winged Stilt
(Himantopus melanopterus) was spotted on the banks of a small
pond  surrounded by unreclaimed moorland, near the junction of Midhurst and Bepton Commons. 

This is the first time that the Stilt has ever been seen in the county of Sussex; and it would appear to be nearly equally scarce in all parts of the British Islands. 

Opportunities for observing the habits and manners of these
rare and accidental visitors so seldom occur, that I shall make

no apology for the length of this communication. 

Apart, however, from the rarity of the species, there are circumstances attending the occurrence of the individual in question which appear to me to be especially worthy of notice as tending to throw some light on its remarkable, and, to the ordinary observer, grotesque external conformation. 

The pond to which I have alluded is very shallow - the depth
of the water, even at 15 paces from the shore, scarcely exceeding a foot. 

About that distance from the banks, the surface was covered with numerous blossoms of the Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis). 

On examining these next day, and frequently afterwards during last month, I found them inhabited by numerous minute Dipterous and Coleopterous insects (small flies, midges, and beetles), comfortably nestled at the bottom of the flowers among the stamens, from which, indeed, none but the most delicate and attenuated instrument would be capable of extracting them without at the same time injuring the blossoms. 

Now, not one of our wading or swimming birds, except the Stilt,

possesses a beak perfectly adapted to this purpose. 

But the Stilt has a bill almost as finely pointed as that of a Hummingbird; and those which make the nearest approach to it, as some among the smaller Tringae, want the accompaniment of length of limb - that unusual development of tibia and tarsus - to enable them to wade to a sufficient distance from the shore. 

The bird was first noticed by an intelligent lad, the son of a
small farmer of the name of Pearson, while driving the cows

home to be milked in the evening. 

It was then standing nearly up to its belly in the water, and rapidly extracting the insects from the flowers, or, as the boy supposed, picking the petals themselves. 

It allowed him to approach within 20 yards before it took flight, when it extended its long red legs behind it, after the manner of a heron, and, alighting again on the opposite bank, immediately recommenced wading out to the water-plants. 

Young Pearson then hastened home to his father, who lives at a short distance from the pond; and the latter, hurrying to the spot with a loaded gun, found the bird employed as before among the flowers of the Water Crowfoot. 

But it was now exceedingly shy and wary of the gun, flying from

one side of the pond to the other, before Pearson could get
within shot (but never uttering any cry or sound), so that at last he found it necessary to resort to stratagem, and to endeavour to “ stalk ” the bird. 

This a newly-made ditch and bank, one extremity of which approached within a few yards of the water’s edge, enabled him to do successfully. 

On raising his head above the bank, just before he tired, he perceived the Stilt within 20 yards of him, knee-deep in the water, in the midst of a cloud of gnats and midges at which he was snapping right and left, much after the manner (to use Pearson’s own  simile) of a dog when teased by the flies in hot weather. 

The bird, fortunately but little damaged by the shot, was
brought to me on the following morning, and on subsequent

dissection proved to be a female. 

The ovarium contained several eggs, the largest of which was about the size of a pea. 

The stomach was crammed with beetles and gnats in a half-digested state, the elytra of the former showing that different species had been captured. 

After the first pleasurable sensations on possessing and examining in the flesh a perfect specimen of so rare a visitor had passed away, I could not help being struck with the remarkable tenuity of the tips of the mandibles as well as by the more obvious peculiarity from which the bird has derived its name (the extraordinary length of its legs).

But after listening to the simple story of George Pearson and his son, I perceived that the mystery was solved, and that here was a new instance of the wonderful adaptation of means to an end, of structure to habits, such interesting examples of which are continually presenting themselves to the observant naturalist. 

* Photo: M. Mubashir via Wikimedia Commons