362 PARRIN&E. 
spots, streaks, and blotches of black, blackish-brown and _ rich 
umber-brown. They measure 1:64 inches in length by about 
1:21 in breadth. 
Genus, Recurvirostra, Zn. 
Bill very long, thin, flexible, turned up towards the tip, which 
is very thin and pointed, channeled both above and below; nos- 
trils long linear; wings long, pointed; tail somewhat wedged ; 
tarsi moderately long, and slender; front toes united by a web, 
which is notched in the middle; hind-toe very minute; nails 
short, curved. 
Recurvirostra avocetta, Lzn. 
899.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 786; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 18; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology 
of Sind p. 258 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, 
p. 154. 
THE AVOCET. 
Length, 18; wing, 85; tail, 3; tarsus, 3:25; bill at front, 
3°5 
5. 
Bill black ; irides red-brown ; legs pale bluish-grey. 
Crown of the head, nape, most of the hind-neck, scapulars, 
lesser wing-coverts, and primary quills, deep black ; all the rest 
of the plumage pure white. 
The Avocet is common during the, winter in Sind, rare in 
Guzerat, and does not occur at all in the Deccan. I have myself 
seen it at Gungrar, near Neemuch, but it is very rare. 
Tribe, Latitores. 
Feet very long; anterior toes usually free to the base, edged 
by a web in a few; hind-toe large ; beak usually short or moder- 
ate, stout, compressed; wing short or moderate, generally 
armed with spurs or tubercles near the flexure; tail generally 
short. 
Famity, Parrida. 
Feet enormous; claws much lengthened ; bill moderate, com- 
pressed ; wings spurred or tubercled. 
SuB-FAMILY, Parrine. 
Of small or moderate size ; feet and claws enormously long, 
thin. 
Genus, Parra {Merropopivs. ) 
Bill moderate, stout, compressed, thick at the base; culmen 
curved at the tip; forehead with a lappet of skin ; tail short ; 
nostrils small, ovate, in the middle of the bill ; wings moderate or 
short, second and third quills longest, first sub-equal, spurred at 
the shoulder; tarsus long; feet enormous, the toes long and 
Eins and the claws very long and pointed : hind-claw especially 
ong. 
