AVOCET 83 



appear to have been more than an occasional straggler to the west of 

 England, Ireland, and Scotland, where it generally made its appearance 

 during the spring and autumn migrations, and it is now reduced to this 

 condition in the southern and eastern counties of England. Of late 

 years, owing to efficient bird-protection, things have, however, been look- 

 ing a little better for the avocet in Norfolk, and in May 1 904 a pair of 

 these birds, in company with a party of spoonbills, made their appear- 

 ance at Breydon Water, where they remained for several days, allowing 

 themselves on one occasion to be approached within fifty yards. 



As regards the colouring of the avocet, it will suffice to state that 

 both sexes are alike in this respect, and that while the upper-parts 

 are pied black-and-white, and the middle tail-feathers wholly white in 

 summer, in winter the latter become distinctly greyish brown, while the 

 white of the upper-parts may apparently also be tinged with grey, and 

 the black of the head and back of the neck becomes confined to the crown, 

 and nape. Possibly at the latter season the black of the plumage 

 may assume a brownish tinge in the adult, although there is some 

 uncertainty as to whether such a colour is only met with in birds of 

 the year, in which such a tone is invariably present. The grey downy 

 coat of the chick is marked with bars of dusky above, and also shows 

 a dark stripe on each side of the back, which lower down unites to 

 form a single line ; the under-parts being yellowish white. It should 

 be added that the beak is black at all ages, while the legs are pale blue 

 in the adult and greenish in the young. As regards the length of the 

 bird no two writers seem to agree, one putting this at 16, and a 

 second at 18 inches, while a third gives 16^ inches for the cock and 

 1 7 for the hen ! 



Avocets, which can swim well, are usually found in small flocks on 

 the borders of marshes, rivers, salt-lagoons, etc., where they feed on 

 crustaceans, worms, and molluscs, to obtain which they search the mud 

 and sand with a semicircular sweeping action not unlike mowing. A 

 slight hollow in mud or sand, sometimes sparsely lined with grass or 

 leaves, serves as a nest for the four eggs, which usually measure rather 

 more than 2 inches in length, and have a clay-brown ground-colour 

 marked with spots, or sometimes scratches and scribbly lines of black, 

 the spots in some instances running together to form blotches. In 1907 

 a pair of these birds bred in the London Zoological Gardens. 



