THE AMERICAN AVOSET. 429 
“In describing the Long-legged Avoset, the similarity between 
that and the present was taken notice of. This resemblance 
extends to every thing but their color. I found both these birds 
associated together on the salt marshes of New Jersey, on the 20th 
of May. They were then breeding. Individuals of the present 
species were few in respect to the other. They flew around the 
shallow pools exactly in the manner of the Long-legs; uttering 
the like sharp note of click, click, click ; alighting on the marsh or 
in the water indiscriminately ; fluttering their loose wings, and shak- 
ing their half-bent legs, as if ready to tumble over; keeping up a 
continual yelping note. They were, however, rather more shy, 
and kept at a greater distance. One which I wounded attempted 
repeatedly to dive; but the water was too shallow to permit him to 
do this with facility. The nest was built among the thick tufts of 
grass, at a small distance from one of these pools. It was com- 
posed of small twigs of a seaside shrub, dry grass, seaweed, &c., 
raised to the height of several inches. The eggs were four, of a 
dull-olive color, marked with large, irregular blotches of black, and 
with others of a fainter tint. 
Audubon, who found it breeding in the neighborhood of 
Vincennes, in the State of Indiana, describes the nest and 
eges as follows: — 
“The nests were placed among the tallest grasses, and were 
entirely composed of the same materials, but dried, and apparently 
of a former year’s growth. ‘There was not a twig of any kind 
about them. ‘The inner nest was about five inches in diameter, and 
lined with fine prairie grass, different from that found on the islets 
of the pond, and about two inches in depth, over a bed having a 
thickness of an inch and a half. ‘The islets did not seem to be 
liable to inundation ; and none of the nests exhibited any appearance 
of having been increased in elevation since the commencement of 
incubation, as was the case with those described by Wilson. Like 
those of most Waders, the eggs were four in number, and placed 
with the small ends together. ‘They measured two inches in length, 
one inch and three-eighths in their greatest breadth, and were 
exactly, as Wilson tells us, ‘of a dull-olive color,’ &c. To this I 
have to add that they are pear-shaped and smooth.” 
