640 AVES— AVOSET. 



njucli sought after, is a good deal larger than that of any other bird what- 

 ever. The bill of the flamingo is like a large black box of an irregular 

 figure, and filled with a tongue which is black and gristly. 



Their time of breeding is according to the climate in which they reside ; 

 in North America they breed in summer ; on the other side of the line, they 

 take the most favorable season of the year. They build their nests in exten- 

 sive marshes, and where they are in no danger of a surprise. The nest is 

 not less curious than the animal that builds it : it is raised from the surface 

 of the pool about a foot and a half, formed of mud scraped up together, and 

 iiardened by the sun, or the heat of the bird's body : it resembles a truncated 

 cone, or one of the pots which we see placed on chimneys; on the top it is 

 hollowed out to the shape of the bird, and in that cavity the female lays her 

 eggs, without any lining but the well cemented mud that forms the sides of 

 the building. She always lays two eggs, and no more; and, as her legs are 

 immoderately long, she straddles on the nest, while her legs hang down, one 

 on each side, into the water. The young ones are a long while before they 

 are able to fly; but they run with amazing swiftness. They are sometimes 

 caught; and, very different from old ones, suffer themselves to be carried 

 home, and are tamed very easily. 



THE AVOSET 1 



Is easily distinguished from all other birds by the form of its bill, which is 

 very thin, slender, and bends considerably upwards. The scooping avoset is 

 about the size of the lapwing, or eighteen inches long ; the bill is three 

 inches and a half in length. The top of the head is black, the rest of the 

 head, neck, and all the other parts of the body white, except the inner sca- 

 pulars, the middle of the wing-coverts and outer webs, and ends of the quills, 

 which again are black. The legs are long, and of a bluish gray, and the 

 toes have a connecting membrane It weighs about thirteen ounces, and is 

 frequent, in the winter, on most of the seacoasts of Europe, as well as in the 

 fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridge, &c in England. It feeds on worms and 

 insects, which it scoops out of the sand with its bill. 



1 Recurcirostra avocetta, Lin . The genus Recurvirostra has the bill very long, slen- 

 der, feeble, depressed throughout its length, flexible and turned up at the point, the upper 

 mandible channelled on its surface, the under laterally; nostrils linear and long ; legs long 

 and slender ; the three fore toes united as far as the second joint by a membrane ; the 

 hind toe placed high up and very short; wings acuminate, t'ne first quill longest. 



