Mr. H. Seebohm on the Genus Himautopus. 229 



Scolopax avocetta (Briss.), Scop. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 92 

 (1769) . 



Avocetta europaa, Dumont, Diet. Sc. Nat. iii. p. 339 

 (1816). 



Recurvirostra sinensis, Swinhoe, Ibis^ 1867^ p. 401. 



Plates: Dresser^ Birds of Europe, vii. pi. 534; Gould, 

 Birds of Gt. Britain, iv. pi. 53. 



Habits : Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 74. 



Effgs : Seebohm, British Birds, pi. 24. figs. 2, 5. 



The Common Avocet may be distinguished by the colour 

 of its forehead, crown, and hind neck, which are black in the 

 adult and broivn in young in first plumage. Its white inner- 

 most secondaries when adult are also peculiar to the species. 



The increase of population and the drainage of marshes 

 have restricted the breeding-places of the Avocet in Europe 

 to the islands off the coast of Denmark and Holland, the 

 marshes of Southern Spain, the delta of the Rhone, and the 

 lagoons on the shores of the Black Sea. To Southern Scan- 

 dinavia and the rest of Central and Southern Europe, with 

 the exception above mentioned, the Avocet has become, as it 

 is in our islands, only an accidental visitor ; but further east 

 it is more abundant, breeding in Palestine and Persia, where 

 it is a resident, and in North Turkestan, the extreme south- 

 west of Siberia, South-east Mongolia, and South Dauria, 

 where it is a summer visitor, wintering in China, Formosa 

 Hainan, India, and occasionally Ceylon. It has been re- 

 corded from the main island of Japan. In Asia Minor it is 

 principally known on passage, though a few are said to 

 remain during the winter ; and it is said to breed throughout 

 Africa in suitable localities. 



HiMANTOPUS RUBRICOLLIS. 



Recurvirostra novae-hollandicR , Vieillot, N. Diet. d^Hist, 

 Nat. iii. p. 103 (1816). 



Recurvirostra rubricollis, Temminck, Man. d^Orn. ii. p. 592 

 (1820) ; et auctorum plurimorum. 



Avocetta novce-hollandia, Ellman, Zoologist, 1861, p. 7470. 



Plates : Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 27. 



