Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of wading birds related to the avosets, having extremely long slender legs, three-toed feet, and exceedingly slender bill; the stilts.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun one of two genera of stilts; they are similar to avocets but with straight bills.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun major one of two genera of stilts; similar to avocets but with straight bills

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The birds include ten species of herons including grey heron Ardea cinerea, goliath heron A. goliath and yellow-billed egret Egretta intermedia, hammerkop Scopus umbretta, four of the six West African species of stork, ducks, five of the six West African species of vulture, hawks, plovers and francolins and black-winged stilt Himantopus himantopus.

    Comoé National Park, Côte d'Ivoire 2009

  • Among listed birds and mammals are: golden eagle Aquila chrysaetus, imperial eagle Aquila heliaca, peregrine Falco peregrinus, black-winged stilt Himantopus himantopus, snow leopard Uncia uncia (EN, Globally threatened), manul cat Felis manul, Mongolian gazelle Procapra guttorosa; (LR, Globally Threatened) and Altai argali Ovis ammon ammon (VU, Globally Threatened).

    Golden Mountains of Altai, Russian Federation 2009

  • Winter visitors are comprised of the sandpipers (Calidris mauri and Micropalama himantopus), the blue-winged teal (Anas discors) and several Nearctic limicolaes.

    Coastal Venezuelan mangroves 2008

  • Other wintering wetland birds include the threatened marbled teal Marmoronetta angustirostris, ferruginous duck Aythya nyroca, and corncrake, Crex crex; also high numbers of green-winged teal Anas crecca, northern pintail Anas acuta, northern shoveler Anas clypeata and black-winged stilt Himantopus himantopus.

    Ichkeul National Park, Tunisia 2008

  • In the last week of last month five of those most rare birds, too uncommon to have obtained an English name, but known to naturalists by the terms of _himantopus_, or _loripes_, and _charadrius himantopus_, were shot upon the verge of Frinsham pond, a large lake belonging to the

    The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 2 Gilbert White 1756

  • The old name of _himantopus_ is taken from Pliny, and, by an awkward metaphor, implies that the legs are as slender and pliant as if cut out of a thong of leather.

    The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 2 Gilbert White 1756

  • _himantopus_; for a cock flamingo weighs, at an average, about four pounds avoirdupois, and his legs and thighs measure usually about twenty inches.

    The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 2 Gilbert White 1756

  • a full-page plate of some fossil shells; an extra-sized plate of the _himantopus_ that was shot at Frensham Pond, straddling with an immense excess of shank; and four engravings, now of remarkable interest, displaying the village as it then stood, from various points of view.

    Gossip in a Library Edmund Gosse 1888

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