AMERICAN AVOSET. 77 



Buffon, theorizing on the singular structure of the bill of 

 the Avoset, supposes it to be " one of those errors or essays of 

 nature, which, if carried a little further, would destroy itself ; 

 for if the curvature of the bill were a degree increased, the 

 bird could not procure any sort of food ; and the organ des- 

 tined for the support of life, would infallibly occasion its de- 

 struction." As it happens, however, and not as itiight be 

 imagined, the Avoset, no less than the Crossbill, continues 

 not only to live, but to vary its fare, and obtain it with facility. 

 Even the Sloth, that triumph on the occasional imbecility of 

 nature, so wretched and lost upon the plain ground, for which 

 the motions of its peculiar and unequal limbs are not calcu- 

 lated, climbs up a tree with facility, and like the tribe of 

 monkeys, is perfectly at ease in his accustomed arborial 

 retreat. Let us then more wisely content ourselves to ob- 

 serve nature in all her ingenious paths, without daring, in 

 our ignorance, to imagine the possible failure of her conser- 

 vative laws. 



The American Avoset is about 18^ inches long ; and 2.^ feet in alar 

 stretch. The bill is black, and about 4 inches in length, curving up- 

 wards, except at the extremity, where it is reflected and terminated in 

 a fine point. Iris reddish hazel. Head, neck, and breast, of a light 

 sorrel color. Chin, and region round the eye nearly white. Upper 

 part of back and wings black. Scapulars and almost the whole back, 

 white, though generally concealed by the black of the upper parts. 

 Belly, vent, and thighs white. Tail equal at the end, white, with a 

 faint tinge of cinereous. Greater coverts tipt with white ; tertials 

 dusky : secondaries white on their outer edges, and whole inner vanes ; 

 rest of the wing black. Legs pale, light blue, (greenish black, Rich- 

 ardson) 4 inches long, — The female about 2 inches shorter. This 

 bird differs from that of the Arctic Zoology, in wanting a white space 

 between the scapulars, and in the white band on the outer scapulars 

 not being continued over the humeral joint. 



Note. A second species, with a white, instead of a rufous neck, 

 head and breast, and very nearly allied, if not identic, with the 

 European, or Oriental Avoset, was shot near to the Great Northern 



