AVOCET. 243 



It must not be supposed tliat because my notes 

 contain no record of examples seen or killed from 

 1853 to 1857, and again from 1857 to 1863, that there- 

 fore none appeared on our coasts during those periods, 

 but undoubtedly they must have been scarce ; and this 

 species can only be regarded now as an irregular 

 migrant. Of such as I have been able to ascertain 

 the exact dates, it will be seen that only three were 

 obtained in autumn (September), the remainder in 

 spring and summer, between March and July, but 

 chiefly in the month of May. 



It is much to be regretted that our earlier local 

 authors afford us so little information as to the habits of 

 this most interesting bird — whether for instance, like the 

 terns, ruffs, and redshanks, they were summer visitants 

 only, or, leaving their breeding grounds when the young 

 were able to fly, spent the winter months on the coast, 

 at the mouths of our tidal rivers. The avocet, however, 

 is specially mentioned in Eay's edition of Willughby's 

 ** Ornithology," as frequenting "our eastern coasts in 

 Suffolk and Norfolk in winter time." The bird observed 

 by Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, at Winterton, in 

 1816, is said to have flown round in circles "uttering 

 a shrill note [twit, twit], and then alighted in the 

 middle of a pool of water, on which it floated; then 

 took several turns on wing, and again alighted on the 

 water, where it sat motionless." 



It has been questioned by many writers whether 

 these birds are really able to swim, but on this point 

 I can quote a high authority, Mr. Osbert Salvia, 

 who, in his notes "On the Sea-birds and Waders of 

 the Pacific coast of Guatemala" ("Ibis," 1865, p. 193), 

 says of the American species (Recurvirostra americana) 

 " avocets often swim ;" and with their semi-palmated 

 feet, so admirably adapted for traversing the most 

 treacherous swamps, there seems no possible reason 

 2i2 



