2 SCOLOPACIDiE. 



lagoons on the shores of the Black Sea. To Southern Scandinavia and the rest of 

 Central and Southern Europe, with the exception above mentioned, the Avocet 

 has become, as it is in our islands, only an accidental visitor ; but further east it 

 is more abundant, breeding in Palestine and Persia, where it is a resident, and in 

 North Turkestan, the extreme south-west of Siberia, South-east Mongolia, and 

 South Dauria, where it is a summer visitor, wintering in China, Formosa, Hainan, 

 India, and occasionally Ceylon. It has been recorded from the main island of 

 Japan. In Asia Minor it is principally known on passage, though a few are said 

 to remain during the winter ; and it is said to breed throughout Africa in suitable 

 localities. . . . 



" The breeding-season of the Avocet commences in the first half of May in 

 Western Europe, but in Eastern Europe, in the valley of the Danube, where the 

 seasons are later, its eggs are not laid before the beginning of June. I have taken 

 the eggs of this bird in Jutland and in the valley of the Danube. The west of 

 Jutland is flat — not a dead flat, but gently undulating. Its most striking peculiarity 

 is the almost entire absence of trees. It has evidently once been sand, with a deposit 

 of bog in the lower lands. Sometimes for miles you travel over desolate and mono- 

 tonous heaths ; but where the soil is better it is drained and cultivated. These 

 parts of the country look less desolate, but quite as monotonous. The houses are 

 scattered over the country, seldom collected in villages, each the facsimile of the 

 other, and without a single element of picturesqueness. At Tarm a river winds 

 through some extensive marshes, and often in many channels reaches a ^ord 

 perhaps six or eight miles off. These marshes are rich in birds. At the south 

 end of this fjord is a peninsula, a square mile or two in extent, separated by a 

 narrow bay from the line of sand-hills or dunes which flank the sea. To this 

 paradise of Waders I made a visit on the 15th of May, 1879, in search of the 

 colony of Avocets which breed there every year. We drove, across country along 

 hard roads, sandy tracts, over mud, through water, to the grassy flat of the 

 promontory. ... As we neared the iQord, Lesser, Common, and Black Terns flew 

 past us ; and when we arrived on the peninsula we were soon the centre of 

 attraction of Dunlins, Redshanks, and Ringed Plovers, whose breeding-grounds we 

 were invading. A flock of Curlews would not allow us to come within range. 

 Dunlins were mostly in pairs, and we took a nest or two of eggs. AVe found a 

 few Redshanks' eggs, but were evidently too early for the Ruffs. Ringed Plovers 

 had young a few days old, but the Gulls and Terns had not begun to breed. All 

 this time we searched in vain for the Avocets. We saw neither bkds nor eggs. 

 Our guides declared that we were a fortnight too early, and that the birds 

 had not arrived. We retraced our steps and had little more than a mile 



