or little-known Limicolse. 245 



into the thorax. The trachea is about six inches and a half 

 long, and a quarter of an inch in diameter, its rings very thin 

 and unossified, and the bronchi short. The proventriculus is an 

 inch long, and half an inch in diameter ; the gizzard of an 

 oblong shape, about an inch and a half long and nearly an 

 inch wide, the epithelial lining tolerably thick and hard. 

 The intestine is between three and four feet long, and about 

 the third of an inch in diameter; the rectum two inches 

 long, and the cseca about two and a half and two and three- 

 quarter inches respectively. 



The gizzard has generally been found to contain small 

 shells and particles of grit, remains of small Crustacea, worms, 

 beetles, and sometimes vegetable fibre. 



Various details have been published from time to time of 

 what may be termed the better-known species of Avocets ; 

 but these details are scattered throughout a multitude of dif- 

 ferent volumes, and reference to them involves no little time 

 and trouble. 



The species, however, are so few in number that the present 

 seems a fitting opportunity for bringing together some of the 

 more important observations which have been published con- 

 cerning them. 



Linnseus thus describes the genus : — 

 " Recurvirostra. Rostrum depresso-planum, subulatum, 

 recurvatum, acuminatum, apice flexili. Pedes palmati, 

 tridactyli." 



He was mistaken, however, in writing " tridactyH," as in 

 all the known species there is a hind toe present. 



Recurvirostra avocetta, Linnaeus. 



Recurvirostra avocetta, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 256 (1766), et 

 auct. recent. 



Recurvirostra europaa, Dumont, Diet. des. Sc. Nat. iii. 

 p. 339 (1816). 



Recurvirostra tephroleuca, Vieillot, Enc. Meth. p. 360 

 (1823). 



Recurvirostra halebi, Brehm, Vogelf. p. 325. 



Recurvirostra sinensis, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1867, p. 400. 



