562 AVOCET. 



Solway district it is unknown. North of the Humber and along 

 the east coast of Scotland it is seldom seen, though stragglers have 

 been met with in the Shetlands, Orkneys and Outer Hebrides. In 

 Ireland its rare visits have been chiefly to the south, but one occur- 

 rence is on record from the estuary of the Moy in the west. 



The Avocet still finds breeding-places in some districts of Den- 

 mark and along the southern shores of the Baltic, as well as in the 

 Frisian Islands and on the coast of Holland ; and southward, the 

 delta of the Rhone in France and that of the Guadalquivir in Spain 

 may be mentioned. It occurs in Northern France and on the coasts 

 and inland waters of the greater part of the Continent on both 

 spring and autumn migrations, while it is to some extent resident in 

 the basin of the Mediterranean, and becomes abundant on the 

 margins of the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas. Eastward, it extends 

 across temperate Asia to Northern China in summer, and as far 

 south as Ceylon in winter. In Africa it is found down to Damara- 

 land and Cape Colony — in both of which it is said to nest, and it 

 occurs in Madagascar. Representative species inhabit North 

 America, the Andes of South America, and the Australian region. 



The eggs are laid in May, on bare cracked mud near water, in 

 some slight depression in the sand, or among scanty herbage ; their 

 number is normally 3-4, and in colour they are clay-buff, blotched 

 and spotted with black : measurements about 2 by i -5 in. The usual 

 note is a clear kluit^ whence the bird's Dutch name. The Italian 

 designation " avocetta " and the Spanish " boceta " may be derived 

 from bocinefta or some similar colloquial diminutive of the classical 

 word biiccina (a curved trumpet), with reference to the shape of the 

 bill. To obtain the worms, aquatic insects and thin-shelled crus- 

 taceans on which the bird chiefly feeds, this bill is employed with 

 a sideways scooping action which leaves zig-zag marks on the soft 

 mud or sand, whence the name "scooper;" while the Avocet was 

 also known as " cobbler's-awl duck " and " shoeing-horn," and, from 

 its cry, as "yelper," "barker," and " clinker." 



In spring the plumage of the adult is black and white, as shown in 

 the engraving ; the slender, pointed, and flexible bill is black, and 

 resembles two thin flat pieces of whalebone coming to a point and 

 turning upwards ; the irides are reddish-brown ; legs and toes pale 

 blue. Length nearly 18 in. (bill 3"2), wing 8"5 in. i\.fter the 

 autumn moult the light portions of the plumage are greyish. In the 

 young the dark portions are tinged with brown and edged with 

 rufous. The bill is distinctly upcurved in the nestling of only a day 

 or two old. 



