546 AVOCET. 



and in the Solway district is unknown. North of the Humber 

 and along the east coast of Scotland it is seldom seen, though 

 stragglers have been met with in the Shetlands, Orkneys and Outer 

 Hebrides. In Ireland its exceptional visits have been chiefly to the 

 south, but once to the estuary of the Moy in the west. 



The Avocet still finds breeding-places in some districts of Den- 

 mark and along the southern shores of the Baltic, as well as in the 

 Frisian Islands and on the coast of Holland ; while southward, the 

 delta of the Rhone in France and that of the Guadalquivir in Spain 

 may be mentioned. On migration it is met with on the coasts and 

 inland waters of the greater part of the Continent, and it is to some 

 extent resident in the basin of the Mediterranean, becoming 

 abundant on the margins of the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas ; 

 while eastward it extends across temperate Asia to Daiiria and 

 ^Mongolia in summer, and as far south as Ceylon in winter. In 

 Africa it is found down to Damara-land and Cape Colony — in both 

 of which it is said to nest, and it occurs in Madagascar. Repre- 

 sentative species inhabit North America, the Andes of South 

 America, and the Australian region. 



The eggs are laid in IMay, on bare cracked mud near water, in 

 some slight depression in the sand, or amongst scanty herbage; their 

 number is normally 3-4, and in colour they are clay-buff, blotched 

 and spotted with black : measurements about 2 by i '5 in. The usual 

 note is a clear kluit, whence the bird takes its Dutch name. The 

 Italian designation 'avocetta' and the Spanish 'boceta' are probably 

 derived from bocinetta or some similar colloquial diminutive of the 

 classical htccina (a curved trumpet), with reference to the shape of 

 the bill. To obtain the worms, aquatic insects and thin-skinned 

 crustaceans on which the bird chiefly feeds, this peculiar beak is 

 employed with a sideways scooping action, which leaves character- 

 istic marks on the soft mud or sand, whence come the provincial 

 names of ' cobbler's-awl duck,' ' scooper,' and ' shoeing-horn ; ' while 

 from its cry the Avocet was formerly known as the ' yelper,' 'barker,' 

 and ' clinker.' 



The slender, pointed, and flexible bill is black, and resembles two 

 thin, flat pieces of whalebone coming to a point and turning up- 

 wards ; the irides are reddish-brown ; the plumage of the adult is 

 black and white, disposed as shown in the engraving ; the legs and 

 toes are pale blue. Whole length nearly 18 in. ; wing 8*5 in. In 

 the young bird the dark portions of the plumage are tinged with 

 brown and edged with rufous. The bill is distinctly upcurved in 

 the nestling of only a day or two old. 



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