EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 129 



THE AVOCET. 



(Himantopus avocetta.)* 



Plate 38, Figs. 2, 5. 



At the commencement of the present century the Avocet was a 

 well-known and common summer visitor to the low-lying eastern 

 counties of England, but is now only known as a straggler on mi- 

 gration. The increase of population and the drainage of marshes 

 have restricted the breeding-places of the Avocet in Europe to the 

 islands off the coast of Denmark and Holland, the marshes of 

 Southern Spain, the delta of the Ehone, and the lagoons on the 

 shores of the Black Sea. Further east it is more abundant. 



The nests which I found in the valley of the Danube on the 

 10th of June, 1883, were most of them slight, but some had 

 more foundation than others. 



The eggs of the Avocet are three or four in number, but in 

 exceptional cases it is said that as many as five have been found. 

 They are pale bumsh-brown in ground-colour, spotted and 

 blotched with rich dark brown, and with underlying markings of 

 grey. They are pyriform in shape, and are subject to but little 

 variety in colour. On some specimens the spots are small and 

 evenly dispersed over the entire surface, whilst on others they 

 more frequently take the form of irregular blotches. They vary in 

 length from 20 to 1"9 inch, and in breadth from 1'45 to 1'35 inch. 

 Some eggs of the Avocet are almost indistinguishable from 

 certain varieties of the eggs of the Grey Plover and the Lap- 

 wing ; but, as a rule, the eggs of the former are richer in ground- 

 colour, and those of the latter are smaller, darker, and more 

 heavily marked. 



THE COMMON STILT. 



{Himantopus melanopterus.) t 



Plate 38, Figs. 4, 6. 



There seems to be no evidence that the Common Stilt has ever 

 bred in our islands ; but it has occurred so many times that it may 

 fairly be classed as an accidental visitor on migration. It is most 

 abundant during the breeding-season in India and Ceylon, where 



* Recurvirostra avocetta — Saunders, Manual, p. 545: Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 185. 

 ■[Himantopus candidus (Bonn.) — Saunders, Manual, p. 547. H. himantopus— Sharpe, 



Handb., III., p. 188. 



