or liitle-known Limicolae. 251 



frequenting the edges of tanks and rivers, generally in small 

 flocks."" To this statement, however, exception is taken by 

 Col. Tickell, who says that, as far as his experience goes, the 

 Avocet is " an exceedingly rare bird in India." He adds, 

 '^ though I have pretty generally explored the Ganges be- 

 tween Sootee and Patna, the Gunduck and Bishennuddee in 

 Tirhoot, the Bhagiruttee in Bengal, and the Mahanuddee in 

 Malda, the Koel, Damoodur, Kasaie, and Soobunrekha, in the 

 wilder tracts of Chota, Nagpoor, and Orissa, never have I met 

 with this bird except in the tideway of the Hooghly below 

 Calcutta, or in the mouths of the Roopnarain, near the sea, 

 and never in any inland jheel, lake, or marsh." This last 

 remark reads strangely ; for Mr. Hume, writing on the orni- 

 thology of Sindh {' Stray Feathers,' i. p. 248), states that it 

 is there very common about the larger inland lakes ; and at 

 the Muncher Lake especially, he noticed it in large parties, 

 "certainly a hundred in a single flock.''' Mr. R. M, Adam, 

 too, shot several specimens in March and April at the Sam- 

 bhur Lake, in Central India (^ Stray Feathers,'' i. p. 397J. 

 Hodgson found it in Nepal. Pere David, Mr. Swinhoe, Mr. 

 Reeves, and others have observed the Avocet in China and 

 Formosa; and Mr. Swinhoe regards it as a winter visitant to 

 South China (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 311). It is included in Mr. 

 Holdsworth's "Catalogue of the Birds of Ceylon'' (P.Z. S. 

 1872, p. 475) on the authority of Mr. Layard, who, some 

 years since, noted the occurrence of two specimens at JaflPna 

 (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. vol. xiv. p. 265, 1854). 



As regards Recurvirostra leucocephala of Vieillot (Nouv. 

 Diet. d'Hist. Nat. iii. p. 103, and Gal. Ois. iii. p. 181, pi. 272), 

 I have seen the type specimen in the Paris Museum, and can 

 state that it is not an Avocet at all, but a young bird, with a 

 broken bill, of the Australian Banded Stilt, Cladorhynchus 

 pectoralis (Du Bus) . It is easy to see how the mistake arose. 

 Had the bill been perfect, Vieillot would have seen that it 

 was not recurved ; but having only the basal half before him, 

 and, no doubt, observing the extreme vertical compression of 

 the mandibles, erroneously assigned it a place among the true 

 Avocets. The foot of Cladorhynchus is veiy small compared 



