232 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Alexander Wilson, the Avocet, Stilt and other waders, "which 

 are becoming rare in onr days were tlien finite plentifnl." 

 De Kay (1844) rates the Avocet as qnite rare in New York 

 State, and it is probable that it was never very common in 

 New England, although it has been recorded north to the 

 Bay of Fundy. Its lai'ge size, confiding nature and striking 

 I)lumage made it a shining mark for the gunner, and it has 

 long since disai)peared as a breeder on the Atlantic coast, and 

 now is regarded in New England as a rare straggler from the 

 west. Two are said to have been taken years ago on the 

 Lynn marshes.^ One was taken at Lake Cochituate, Natick, 

 October 19, ISSO.- Three were shot at Ipswich, September 

 13, 1S96, by :\Ir. A. B. Clark.'' An adult female was taken 

 May '-2,'5, 18S7, doubtless on the Salisbury marshes. The skin 

 was made up by Mr. Benjamin F. Damsell, and is now in the 

 collection of the Boston Society of Natural History.^ There is 

 one Maine record (Knight, 1878), and one for Connecticut (Mer- 

 riam, 1871). There are some museum specimens credited to 

 New York, and oue definite record. A single adult male Avocet 

 was seen in company with other shore birtls at Ithaca, N. Y. 

 The bird was first seen on September 15, 1009, and was taken 

 on the following day. The skin is now in the collection of 

 Cornell I^niversity.^ 



The long legs of the Avocet enable it to wade in deej)er 

 water than most birds, and its webbed feet fit it for sw^imming 

 whenever it gets out of its dei)tli. On the Atlantic coast it 

 was found usually about salt marshes, and bred there. It 

 feeds by immersing head and neck and probing in the ooze 

 of the bottom with its curious bill. Its food while here was 

 snails, marine worms and insects, according to Wilson. Elliot 

 says that its food consists of insects, small crustaceans, etc. 

 Henshaw found the larvie of water insects in the crops of 

 those examined. 



The ])as,siug of this curious, large and showy wader from 

 the Atlantic coast is a matter of regret to all lovers of nature. 



1 Osgood, Fletcher: Shooting and Fishing, 1S90, p. U. 



2 Purdio, Henry A.: Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club. 18S1, p. 123. 

 •■• Keiuuird, F. H.: Auk, 1897, p. 212. 



* Allen, Glover M.: Auk, 1913, p. 23. 

 5 Allen, .\rthur A.: Auk, 1910, p. 344. 



