302 SCOLOPACID^. 



visitor. The late B. S. Ball, of Youghal, stated that he 

 shot one near that town ; three were observed on the marshy 

 coast of Wexford, and one was obtained near Castletown ; 

 two were shot in Cork Harbour in January, 1848, in which 

 month one was seen on the Dublin coast by the late K. J. 

 Montgomery ; and more recently, as recorded by Mr. R. 

 Warren (Zool. 1877, p. 288) one was shot on the estuary of 

 the Moy by Captain Dover. 



On the coasts of Norway and Sweden the Avocet can only 

 be considered a straggler, but it still breeds in diminishing 

 numbers in certain localities in Denmark, on the southern 

 shores of the Baltic, in the Frisian Islands, and on the coast 

 of Holland : arriving in April and departing in September. 

 To Belgium, and the north of France, it aj^pears to be an 

 irregular visitant, but in the Camargue it breeds ; and, 

 although a local species, it is now known to be common 

 in the breeding-season in the marshy districts of the south 

 of the Spanish Peninsula. On migration it has occurred, 

 although rarely, in Switzerland and the interior of Germany, 

 and it visits the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean 

 with regularity, a limited number being resident there. 



In North Africa it appears to be generally distributed in 

 suitable localities, and it occurs along the east and west coasts, 

 and, more rarely, in the interior of that continent, down to 

 Damara Land and Cape Colony, in both of which it has 

 been stated to breed. Hartlaub records it from Madagascar. 

 Returning to the Palaearctic region, the Avocet is found 

 breeding on the shores of the Black Sea and the Caspian ; in 

 Turkestan ; in Siberia as far north as Dauria ; and in Mon- 

 golia ; and it visits the coast of China down to Formosa and 

 Hainan in winter. From Asia Minor it can be traced through 

 Persia to India, and on the inland waters of the latter it is 

 sometimes abundant in the winter and early spring ; it also 

 straggles to Ceylon. 



In addition to our Avocet, the genus comprises three 

 other species : llecnrvirostra amerkana, which has a sandy- 

 red head and nape in summer, and is found from Hudson's 

 Bay down to Guatemala ; the remarkable 11. andina, with 



