or little-known Limicolse. 255 



of eggs is also the same (four) , which diflFer only in having the 

 ground-colour dull olive, those of the Stilt being of a yellowish- 

 clay coloiu' blotched with black/' The food of the American 

 Avocet consists chiefly of insects and small Crustacea. The 

 stomachs of several specimens examined by Swainson con- 

 tained fragments of the latter mixed with gravel. Like the 

 various species of Totanus, it is a very noisy bird ; and, utter- 

 ing cries of distress, it flies towards any one who may invade 

 its haunts. The females have the colour of the head and neck 

 in summer much paler than the males, and approaching to a 

 buff" orange, while the scapulars are browner. In winter the 

 head and neck in both sexes are white ; in the adult, in autumn, 

 and in birds of the year, the same parts are grey or greyish 

 white. There can, I think, be little doubt that R. occiden- 

 talis, Vigors, was founded upon examples of the present 

 species, procured at San Francisco, in the latter plumage. 

 Prof. Spencer Baird and Dr. Elliott Coues are certainly of 

 this opinion"^, although their views were not shared by the 

 late Mr. Cassin. Vigors's original description in the ' Zoolo- 

 gical Journal ' runs as follows : — " Recurv. dorso, corpore in- 

 fra, remigumque secundariarum apicibus albis ; capite, collo 

 supra, caudaque pallidissime griseis ; remigibus nigris. Ros- 

 trum pedesque nigri. Longitudo corporis 18, rostri 4, alse a 

 carpo ad remigem primam 7^, caudse 3^, tarsi 4." 



In the ' Zoology of the Voyage of the ' Blossom,' ' pub- 

 lished ten years later, the same naturalist again described the 

 bird, adding the remark that it differs from our European 

 species .... in the absence of the black markings on the 

 head and nape ; and from the Indian species, R. orientalis, 

 by the greyish colouring of the head and upper part of the 

 neck, as well as by the fascia on the wings, and the black 

 colour of its legs " f- 



* See also Peale, Expl. Exped. /. c. 



t The colour of the legs, eiToneously stated to be black, must have 

 been so described from dry skins. The delicate pale bluish gi-ey of those 

 parts fades very rapidly after death. In two specimens of R. avocetta 

 which I skinned on the 13th April last, this beautiful colour bad changed 

 to black before the end of the month. 



T 2 



