AVOCETS 151 



Family RECURVIROSTRID.E. Avocets and Stilts. 

 Key to the species of RECURVIROSTRID.E. 



A. Bill strongly turned upward ; hind toe present. American Avocet. 



B. Bill straight or nearly so ; hind toe absent. Black-necked Stilt. 



Vo^.fJ 



Genus RECURVI ROSTRA Linnseus. 



225. Recurvirostra americana Gmel. American Avocet. 



Plumage of adults in summer : head, neck and chest cinnamon rufous ; 

 scapulars and primaries black ; ends of greater coverts, the middle coverts 

 and portion of secondaries, the back, tail and belly white. Plumage of adults 

 in winter: differs chiefly in that the head, neck and chest are white; a 

 bluish gray wash on top of head and neck. Immature plumage : differs in 

 the feathers of the back and scapulars being lightly mottled with huffy ; hind 

 neck washed with rufous. Wing 8.40 to 9.00; culmen 3.50; tarsus 3.76. 

 Bill strongly turned upward ; hind toe present. 



Geog. Dist. — Temperate North America, chiefly in the interior, breeding 

 from Illinois and Texas northward to the Saskatchewan ; wintering from the 

 Gulf coast south to Guatemala and the West Indies. 



County Records. — Cumberland ; one killed on Cape Elizabeth, November 

 5, 1878, (Brown, B. N. 0. C. 4, p. 108). 



There is only the one record of the species straggling to 

 Maine. It is common as a breeding bird on the plains of 

 Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Dakota and Utah. A nest 

 taken at Loveland, Colorado, June 29, 1888, was composed 

 of decayed weeds and tules lined with fine grasses and was 

 placed on the ground in a swamp. The four eggs are of a 

 bufly clay color handsomely spotted with chocolate and black. 

 They measure 1.91 x 1.35, 1.95 x 1.30, 2.00 x 1.36, 2.00 x 

 1.39. 



The birds are said to nest in colonies, assembling in some 

 marsh or grassy swamp where the local conditions are right. 

 In most cases no nest is made, the eggs being laid in a mere 

 depression or on such vegetable matter as may cover the ground. 

 In feeding the birds wade along in the water, dropping their 

 bill beneath the surface until it touches the bottom and mov- 

 ing it from side to side as they wade along, picking up small 

 moUusks, worms, insects and similar forms of life. 



