AVOCET 255 
Kent, and Sussex. It may also have bred in Staffordshire as 
long ago as 1686. About 1824 a large breeding-colony was 
annihilated by persons, who, for successive years, made a 
wholesale raid on the eggs which they used for cooking- 
purposes, while the birds themselves were victimised for 
the sake of their feathers which were used for ‘ flies’ for 
fishing. Of later date the Avocet was httle known as a 
nesting-species in England, though Clarke and Roebuck in 
the ‘ Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire’ adduce evidence that 
this species bred at the mouth of the Trent in 1840 (New- 
ton, Dict. Birds, p. 24). 
Geographical distribution.—Abroad, it breeds in limited 
numbers in Holland, Denmark, Germany, France, and more 
abundantly in Southern and South-eastern Kurope, Tem- 
perate Asia, and in Africa down to the Cape. In winter 
it reaches Southern India and Ceylon, and is also found 
in Madagascar. About the basin of the Mediterranean it is 
resident to some extent (Saunders). 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial.Top of head, upper 
part of cheeks, hind-neck, middle of the back, primaries, and 
most of the wing-coverts, black; rest of the plumage, white. 
Adult female nuptial.—Similar to the male plumage. 
Adult winter, male and female——The white colouring 
becomes greyish. 
Immature, male and female.—Chiefly white, with brown 
markings, which are edged with rufous, instead of black as 
in the adult. 
Beak. Black. Flattened and rather expanded at the 
base, becoming pointed towards the extremity ; flexible and 
upcurved. 
Freer. Light bluish-grey ; toes, semi-webbed. 
Irtpes. Reddish-brown. 
AYERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 
TOTAL LENGTH ... we Me esl 
Sp im: 
WING ea, a a4 ocoeee 
BEAK Le ed ae ate RADE. 
T'ARSO-METATARSUS 3 3 
EGe 21 orm 
