AMERICAN A VOSET. 21 



it bends slightly down, ending in an extremely fine point ; ii-idcs reddish 

 hazel ; whole head, neck and breast, a light sorrel color ; round the 

 eye, and on the chin, nearly white ; upper part of the back and wings 

 black ; scapulars, and almost the whole back, white, though generally 

 concealed by the black of the upper parts ; belly, vent and thighs, pure 

 white ; tail equal at the end, white, very slightly tinged with cinereous ; 

 tertials dusky brown ; greater coverts tipped with white ; secondaries 

 white on their outer edges, and whole inner vanes ; rest of the wing 

 deep black ; naked part of the thighs two and a half inches ; legs four 

 inches, both of a very pale light blue, exactly formed, thinned and 

 netted, like those of the Long-legs ; feet half-webbed ; the outer mem- 

 brane somewhat the broadest ; there is a very slight hind toe, which, 

 claw and all, does not exceed a quarter of an inch in length. In these 

 two latter circumstances alone it differs- from the Long-legs ; but is in 

 every other strikingly alike. 



The female was two inches shorter, and three less in extent ; the head 

 and neck a much paler rufous, fading almost to white on the breast ; 

 and separated from the black of the back by a broader band of white ; 

 the bill was three inches and a half long ; the leg half an inch shorter ; 

 in every other respect marked as the male. She contained a great 

 number of eggs, some of them nearly ready for exclusion. The stomach 

 was filled with small snails, periwinkle shell-fish, some kind of mossy 

 vegetable food, and a number of aquatic insects. The intestines were 

 infested with tape-worms, and a number of smaller hot-like worms, some 

 of which wallowed in the cavity of the abdomen. 



In Mr. Peale's collection there was one of this same species, said to 

 have been brought from New Holland, differing little in the markings 

 of its plumage from our own. The red brown on the neck docs not 

 descend so far, scarcely occupying any of the breast ; it is also some- 

 what less.* 



In every stuffed and dried specimen of these birds which I have 

 examined, the true form and flexure of the bill is altogether deranged ; 

 being naturally of a very tender and delicate substance. 



Note. — It is remarkable, that, in the Atlantic States, this species 

 invariably affects the neighborhood of the ocean ; we never having 

 known an instance of its having been seen in the interior; and yet 

 Captain Lewis met with this bird at the ponds, in the vicinity of the 

 Falls of the Missouri. That it was our species, I had ocular evidence, 

 in a skin brought by Lewis himself, and presented, among other speci- 

 mens of natural history, to the Philadelphia Museum. See History of 

 Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, vol. II., p. 343. — Cr. Ord. 



* This is a different species; it is the R. rubricoltis of Temniinck, Manuel d'Or- 

 nithologie, p. 592. 



