AMERICAN AVOCET 39 



rows on the beach; one nest was partially under a fallen shrub or 

 bushy weed. The nests were made of grasses, weed stems, straws 

 and small sticks, with sometimes a few feathers, loosely arranged 

 around small hollows, from 5 to 7 inches in diameter. Two of the 

 nests held five eggs, the others three or four. 



Kobert B. Kockwell (1912) found an interesting colony of avoccts 

 on an island in Barr Lake, Colo., of which he says : 



The nests were all located in very similar locations, among a young growth 

 of cockle burrs not over six inches in height and which had probably grown 

 at least half of that since the eggs were laid. The cockle burrs formed a belt 

 about 10 yards wide clear around the island just below the dense blue-stem 

 and other rank grass with which the island was covered and on ground that 

 was under water during the high water of the spring although inundated for 

 a short time only. Two of the nests were very crude affairs, being a mere 

 shallow hollow in the sand with a very few dead weed stalks of short lengths 

 arranged around the eggs. The other was constructed in the same manner, 

 but was quite well lined with weed stems, so that the eggs did not touch the 

 ground. There was no evident attempt at concealment, the nests all being 

 placed in small open spaces from six inches to a foot in diameter, and with 

 nothing to protect them; but the color of the eggs was sufficient protection to 

 make them quite inconspicuous. 



Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1925) writes: 



The sites chosen often are subject to inundation by sudden floods, when the 

 birds scurry about, seemingly in confusion, but in reality working actively to 

 build up the nest in order to support the eggs above the level of the encroach- 

 ing water. In some cases it may be necessary to erect a structure 12 or 15 

 inches in height. Weeds, small sticks, bones, or "dried bodies of clucks or other 

 birds, feathers, or any other materials available are utilized as building 

 materials. 



Eggs. — The American avocet lays three or four eggs, usually four 

 and occasionally five. Numerous nests have been found containing 

 seven or eight eggs, but these are probably products of two females. 

 Edwin Beaupre writes to me that, in a colony of five pairs found by 

 him on an island in a small lake in southern Alberta, the five pairs 

 were occupying three nests; one contained eight eggs, another seven 

 and the third four. The eggs vary in shape from ovate (rarely) 

 to ovate pyriform and they are usually much elongated. The shell 

 is smooth, but not glossy. The ground color varies from " Isabella 

 color " to " deep olive buff." This is more or less evenly covered 

 with irregular spots and blotches, in various sizes, of brownish black, 

 blackish brown, or black, rarely "warm sepia" or "bister"; there 

 are occasionally a few blackish scrawls, and numerous underlying 

 spots of various shades of drab. The measurements of 55 eggs aver- 

 age 49.8 by 34 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 56.3 by 34.6, 51.5 by 36.6, 43.2 by 33.4 and 47 by 31 milli- 

 meters. 



