466 GHALLATORES. 



rlick often repeated. Sometimes ihej may be no- 

 ticed, collected in small parties, on open downs 

 thinly covered with grasses and other kinds of vege- 

 tation, running very gently, when, if alarmed, they 

 frequently fly off in a straight line, and very close 

 to the ground. Their mode of feeding is by scoop- 

 ing, or, as it, seems, beating the soft ground with 

 their flat and upturned bill ; and when thus engaged, 

 they are frequently seen wading up to their breasts 

 in the pools left by the receding tide. They never 

 swim voluntarily, although furnished with feet so 

 extensively palmated as to have induced the early 

 systematists to place them amongst the swimming 

 birds ; nevertheless, this structure is an admirable 

 provision for enabling them to traverse the soft and 

 yielding mud in which they find their food. 



The nest is generally formed of dry grasses, sea- 

 weeds, and small twigs, heaped up to the thickness 

 of several inches, and placed among thick tufts of 

 grass, in the neighbourhood of shallow water. The 

 eggs are four in number. 



The typical species is — 



The Scooping Avocet (Recurvirostra Avocetta). The 

 upcnrved form of the bill, which gives so singular an 

 api)earance to this bird, is most remarkable, being un- 

 suited to probe the ground, like that of the Snipe or 

 Woodcock, or to break the shell of ordinary-sized mol- 

 lusks ; the slightest frost, therefore drives the Avocet to 

 tlie oozy muddy flats of estuaries, bays, and similar situ- 

 ations, where it can patter about with its wide- webbed 

 feet, and gather small crustaceans and sea-worms. Those 

 who have seen a Stork, or a Crane, with a frog at the tip 

 ( >f its long mandibles, and with an upward movement of 

 the head drop it into its throat, will have a good idea of 

 tlie actions of the Avocet when it has captured a small 

 shrimp, a marine insect, or any other small object upon 

 which it lives, and will at once perceive that with such a 

 peculiarly-formed beak it could not feed in any other 

 manner. 



