AVOCET. 



557 



of tliem there at present ; tliey are also rare now in Norfolk. 

 The authors of the catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds, 

 say, that during the breeding season the Avocet used to fre- 

 quent the marshes at Winterton ; and in the summer of 1816 

 we saw one there which had young. This bird made several 

 circles round us, uttering a shrill note, and then alighted in 

 the middle of a pool of water, on which it floated ; then took 

 several turns on wing, and again alighted on the water, where 

 it sat motionless. The bill of the Avocet is so flexible that 

 it is totally unfit for a weapon of offence, and the bird itself 

 has a peculiarly harmless and meek appearance. 



Mr. Selby records one that was killed at Hartley in Dur- 

 ham, and Dr. Fleming says it is only an occasional straggler 

 into Scotland. 



The food of the Avocet consists of worms, aquatic insects, 

 and the thinner skinned crustaceous animals which these birds 

 search for on soft mud and sand, occasionally wading deep 

 when at their feed. It is said that the particular marks made 

 by the singular form of the beaks of these birds in the sand 

 while searching for food are recognisable, while their stoop- 

 ing mode of action, and the character of the beak itself, have 

 induced the provincial names of Scooper, and Cobler's-awl 

 Duck. Bewick mentions that when the female is frightened 

 off her nest, she counterfeits lameness, flying round with the 

 legs hanging down and the neck extended, uttering a sound 

 like, twit^ twit, repeatedly, from which they are sometimes 

 called, Yelpers ; but when necessity prompts, the flight is 

 powerful and rapid. 



The nest is said to be made in a small hole in the drier 

 parts of extensive marshes ; the eggs are said to be only two 

 in number, of a clay coloured brown, spotted and speckled 

 Avith black, about two inches in length, by one inch and a 

 half in breadth. 



M. Nilsson states that this bird visits Sweden but rarelv, 



