AVOCET. 3 



further to go, when we caught sight of a bird struggling in a snare 

 on a grassy flat, separated by a half-dried-up stream full of black mud and 

 Equisetce from the main promontory. We soon struggled across, and were 

 delighted to find an Avocet caught in a snare, placed over a nest containing four 

 eggs. In five minutes we found five more nests, three containing four eggs each, 

 and the others only two. Over each nest a snare was placed. One Avocet only 

 flew over whilst we were there, probably the mate of the captured bird ; it uttered 

 its somewhat feeble and monosyllabic cry. The nests were mere hollows in the 

 short grass, with a small handful of dry grass and leaves as lining. We waited 

 some time, and a pair of birds came back. They seemed to have swam ashore, as 

 they came from the sea, and were not seen to alight. They did not appear to 

 have discovered that the nests had been robbed ; for when some Gulls came over 

 they flew up at them, and chased them away with screams. Rejoining our 

 conveyance we crossed some shallow Avater and made for the ' dunes.' About 

 halfway across we came upon a party of perhaps fifty Avocets walking in the 

 shallow water and moving their bills from side to side in the sand at the bottom, 

 occasionally tossing up their heads. We tried to stalk them with our heavy 

 conveyance ; but our driver made a muddle of it, and a right and left barrel failed 

 to get us a second specimen. The nests I found in the valley of the Danube on 

 the 10th of June, 1SS3, were most of them slight, but some had more foundation 

 than others. They were always built on the dry land. 



" The eggs of the Avocet are three or four in number, but in exceptional 

 cases it is said that as many as five have been found. They are pale buSish brown 

 in ground-colour, spotted and blotched with rich dark brown, and with underlying 

 markings of grey. They are pyriform in shape, and are subject to but little variety 

 in colour. On some specimens the spots are small and evenly dispersed over the 

 entire surface, whilst on others they more frequently take the form of irregular 

 blotches. They vary in length from 2'0 to 1"9 inch, and in breadth from 1'45 

 to 1'35 inch. Some eggs of the Avocet are almost indistinguishable from certain 

 varieties of the eggs of the Grey Plover and the Lapwing ; but, as a rule, the eggs 

 of the former are richer in ground-colour, and those of the latter are smaller, 

 darker, and more heavily marked. It is said that both parents assist in incubating 

 the eggs. Only one brood appears to be reared in the year. Some doubt exists 

 as to how the old birds feed their young ; and as no one has yet observed them 

 being fed by their parents, the interesting question is still undecided." 



Mr. H. E. Dresser states that the measurements of a series of eggs of the 

 Avocet in his collection vary from 2'02 by 1"52 inch to l'9o by 1'47 inch.* 



* ' History of the Birds of Europe,' vol. vii. p. 583. 



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