674 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
Mr. Ortlepp found it breeding on some vleys near Colesberg. 
Mr. J. C. Faure procured it at Cape Town, and we saw them in 
great numbers at the Berg River. Here we obtained numerous 
nests and eggs. The former are slight depressions on the summit 
of some slightly-raised hummock in the soil which is always very 
damp and generally flooded, being in fact the marshes at the mouth 
of the river. The crust is lined with dry sedge or grass, and the 
eggs, usually four, are placed with the thin ends together in the 
centre. The young runand take to the water, swimming beautifully 
within a few minutes of their exclusion, as we have witnessed, and 
the parent birds are deeply solicitous for their welfare. The eggs 
are pale greenish nankin, spotted sparsely throughout with black 
spots of rather a large size, and abruptly pointed at the thin end. 
Axis, 1" 9’; diam., 1” 3”. 
Mr. Rickard met with the Avocet once at Port Elizabeth, when 
he procured two specimens, but the species was not seen afterwards. 
Lieut. Stokes shot one near Newcastle early in October, but we have 
no records of its occurrence from any of our other correspondents. 
Mr. Andersson writes: “This handsome and peculiar bird is 
occasionally found on the south-west coast of Africa, and also occurs, 
though less frequently, inland. In the Cape Colony, however, I have 
found the case, as regards its distribution, slightly reversed. I may 
mention as inland localities for this species Otjimbinque, where I 
have seen it once or twice, and Ondonga where it was shot by Axel. 
At certain seasons the Avocet is not uncommon on the coast, at 
Walwich Bay, Sandwich Harbour, Angra Pequéna, &c. ; but it 
usually disappears from Damara Land during the breeding season, 
though I have little doubt that a few pairs remain to nest there, as I 
have occasionally met with very young birds during the dry time of 
the year. The Avocet is generally observed in small flocks, and is on 
the whole a shy and wary bird. It is an interesting object to the 
ornithologist, to whom its graceful figure, as it quietly skirts the 
glassy pool or wades amongst the shallows on the sea-shore, never 
fails to be a source of pleasure. It feeds on insects, worms, thin- 
skinned crustacea, &c., which it seeks when they are left exposed on 
the mud or sand by the receding tide, and also by wading knee-deep 
in shallow water.” Senor Anchieta has forwarded two specimens 
from Mossamedes to the Lisbon Museum. Siz John Kirk states 
hak qn the Zambesi the Avocet is not, unfrequent. 
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