182 BIEDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



will probably account for its present extreme rarity 

 as a British bird. 



By chance, perhaps through adverse winds, an 

 Avocet makes its appearance at the period of migra- 

 tion in spring or autumn ; but if not shot from its 

 attractive colour, it makes but a temporary stay, 

 and, impelled by curious instinct, speeds away to a 

 more secluded region, where it may rear its brood in 

 safety. A curious habit, which has obtained for it 

 the name of Scooping Avocet, has been alluded to 

 under the head of " Greenshank." 



So far as I am aware, the Avocet has but once 

 been observed in Middlesex. A solitary bird, in 

 fine plumage, was shot at Kingsbury Reservoir in 

 May, 1854, by a gentleman unknown in the neigh- 

 bourhood, who carried the bird, for preservation, to 

 London, where it was seen by an acquaintance, who 

 lately informed me of the fact. 



Blacktailed Godwit, Limosa melanura. Owing, 

 probably, to the extraordinary difference between the 

 summer and winter plumage of the Godwits, which 

 change from a bright chesnut beneath in summer 

 to a pale stone -colour in winter, a good deal of con- 

 fusion has been created by some authors, who state 

 that there are several species of Godwit in England. 



There are but two species, the Blacktailed and 

 the Bartailed, both of which undergo the same sea- 

 sonal change of plumage. At a distance the former 

 may always be known from the latter by its superior 



