AVOCET 253 
like a surgeon’s needle.' Its legs and feet are long and 
slender, and its toes are partially ‘webbed (figs. 387 and 3 ).) 
The Avocet is a bird of the coast. It delights to probe in 
the soft ooze of tidal estuaries, where it obtains an abundance 
of food. 
Degland, in his ‘ Ornithologie Européenne,’ points out 
that the partial webbing of the foot enables this bird not 
only to swim, but even fo support itself on the sinking slimy 
marshes which it traverses. 
Fic. 38.—HEAD OF AVOCEHT. 2 Nat. size. 
The swimming-powers have been noticed by many 
authorities. Mr. R. Warren has seen it swim out from 
shallow water to the open sea, with the wind against it, 
the bird all the while rising buoyantly over the waves. 
Food. — Worms, insects, small shell-fish, crabs, and 
shrimps, form the staple diet. The method of feeding is 
peculiar: as the bird paces over the ooze, it applies its 
beak to the flat muddy surface, and rotates it from side 
to side. This leaves a zig-zag track behind it, a useful 
means of detecting the bird’s whereabouts. 
Sir R. Payne-Gallwey points out that “the flat forma- 
tion of the edges of the bill and its recurving shape allow it 
to sweep over the level surface of the mud. The food is 
taken in where the bend of the bill touches the ground ’ 
(‘ Letters to Young Shooters,’ Third Series, pp. 301-302). 
! From the formation of its beak the Avocet has been called the 
‘ cobbler’s-awl duck,’ and the ‘ shoeing-horn.’ 
