82 



PLOVER GROUP 



On this ground it has been made, perhaps unnecessarily, the t\-pe of a 

 distinct genus, with the designation CladorhyncJius leiicoceplialiis. The 

 distinctive features of the avocet are to be found in the strong upward 

 curvature of the slender beak, the presence of a small hind-toe, and the 

 deep, although scalloped webbing of the front-toes. Four species of 

 avocet, two of which are American, and a third Australasian, are recog- 

 nised. The range of the European avocet includes (or rather perhaps 



included) the greater jjart of central and southern Europe, and western 

 and Central Asia as far east as Mongolia, together with the whole of 

 Africa, while in winter the species visits India and Cej-lon. Over the 

 greater part of this extensive range the avocet formerly bred in suitable 

 localities, that is to saj', in the neighbourhood of swamps and marshes, 

 but the progress of cultivation and draining, together with the persecu- 

 tion from which such a lovely bird cannot hope to escape, has driven it 

 from many of its original haunts. At no i)criod of its histor\' does it 



