O88 THE AMERICAN AVOCET. 
does not dabble at random, but sees and snatches its prey from the surface of 
the water with great agility, assisting the passage of the morsel down the long 
bill by a quick forward thrust of the head. In advancing, the legs are with- 
drawn rapidly along the line of the tarsus, with folded or collapsed foot, and 
thrust forward again in such fashion as least to disturb the ooze of the bottom. 
As is not, perhaps, so generally known, the Avocet is also a ready diver, 
or, more accurately, dabbler, since it feeds from the surface of the water 
with the tipping motion characteristic of some of the ducks. In this operation, 
the legs are not at all exposed, but only the fail and the rump, the legs being 
evidently required under water to maintain the vertical position. In dabbling, 
the birds must depend more or less upon the sensitiveness of the bill, for the 
water becomes too much disturbed for vision. The confidence in strangers 
sometimes exhibited by these birds in carrying on their diving operations is 
very flattering; and one only wishes that it had been uniformly deserved dur- 
ing the years which have so sadly reduced their numbers. 
Avocets are rather noisy when disturbed or threatened, but are not es- 
pecially so at other times. Their notes consist chiefly of simple shrill cries, 
neither very musical nor yet strident, “crick-crick-crick-crick” or creek-creek— 
something, in fact, after the order of the Curlews, with many excited quaver- 
ings beside. 
It is, however, when its nest is threatened that the bird displays its utmost 
charms. It is anxious at the outset to distract attention, even before discovery 
of the eggs is certain; and as one pokes about in a flat-bottomed boat or canoe, 
a half dozen of them at once may be seen hoisting signals of distress, and in- 
viting pursuit. One example may suffice. With splendid light and well 
equipped for photographic appreciation, we put the canoe against a tiny reef 
upon which we saw a nest with three eggs. The mother bird had flushed at a 
hundred yards, but seeing our position she flew toward us and dropped into 
the water some fifty feet away. Here she lifted a black wing in simulation of 
maimed stiffness, and flopped and floundered away with the aid of the other 
one. Sceing that the ruse failed, she ventured nearer and repeated the experi- 
ment, lifting now one wing and now both in token of utter helplessness. After 
a while the male joined her, and we had the painful spectacle of a crippled 
family, whose members were uttering most doleful cries of distress, necessi- 
tated apparently by their numerous aches and breaks. 
Once, for experiment’s sake, we followed, and the waders flopped along 
in manifest delight coaxing us up on shore and making off thru the sage-brush 
with broken legs and useless wings. But we came back, finding it better to let 
the birds inake the advances. Mr. Bowles hit upon the scheme of splashing 
gently in the water, and it served admirably to excite the birds and make them 
reckless; and the click, click of the camera was sweeter music in our ears than 
the explosion of death-dealing cartridges before a band of elk, 
