AVOCET. 5 



1822 and 1825, as he remembers, about that time, visiting Salthouse, in summer, 

 with Mr. Jary, of South "Walsham, when two or three couples were shot, and a 

 boy waded through the swamp and brought out a young bird. A single bird was 

 left, which he understood was seen there for some time after, but he fears that this 

 expedition saw the last of the Avocets. They bred on the salt marshes, subject to 

 constant inundations from the sea, beyond the shingly beach, and consequently 

 the ground was full of holes and soft places, which rendered it difficult to reach 

 their breeding sites. From the records of specimens killed subsequently to that 

 date, at Salthouse, it seems that until those marshes were altogether reclaimed in 

 18-51, stragglers from time to time still visited their old haunt, on their migratory 

 passage ; but of late the few that have appeared on our coast have been met with 

 either on Breydon or in the neighbourhood of Lynn." 



Messrs. A. Chapman and W. J. Buck found the Avocet breeding on the 

 marisma of the Lower Guadalquivir in May. Comparing the eggs of this species 

 with those of the Black-winged Stilt, they write * : — " The Avocet's eggs are larger 

 and lighter in colour, and these birds seldom have any nest at all, the three eggs 

 merely laid at random on the bare cracked mud, and often an inch or two apart. 

 Three is the usual complement." 



Mr. Alfred C. Chapman, accompanied by his brother, Mr. Abel Chapman, 

 visited West Jutland in May 1893 for the purpose of studying various marsh- 

 breeding birds. Mr. A. C. Chapman has published the following interesting 

 observations, made during their visit, on the breeding habits of the Avocet, Ruff, 

 and Redshank f : — " The coast where the Terns were breeding was separated from 

 an extensive fiord, or shallow marine area, by a very long narrow strip of sandhills 

 and bent-grass, and at one point in the fiord a level promontory projected some 

 four or five miles into the fiord. The whole surface of this headland was 

 overgrown with short salt-grass, raised about a couple of feet above high-water 

 mark, and at low tide large areas of sand and mud were laid bare, extending in 

 some directions far beyond the shores of the promontory itself. Dotted about in 

 the fiord, beyond the boundaries of the salt-grass spit, were sundry islets, covered 

 with a rougher kind of sea-grass and bordered in places with reeds. This whole 

 area was alive with birds. We spent the 15th day of May on this salt-spit and on 

 such of the islets as we had time to explore. We commenced the day by pro- 

 ceeding direct to the furthest extremity of the promontory Distributed all 



over the promontory and about the islets were immense numbers of Redshanks, 



* ' Wild Spain,' p. 87. 



t " A ContribuHon towards the Ornithology of West Jutland," Ibis, 1894, pp. 347-349. 



