2256 PLOVERS, SANDPIPERS, SNIPE, J AC ANAS, GULLS 



The avocets include five species, having much the same distribution as the stilts, 

 with the exception that none breed in India or the adjacent countries. The com- 

 mon avocet, which was formerly a frequent visitor to the fenny districts of Eng- 

 land, is characterized in the adult dress by the black upper surface of the head and 

 hinder part of the neck, and the white innermost secondaries; the young birds in 

 their first plumage have the dark parts of the plumage brown, and the secondaries 

 barred with white. The total length of the bird is eighteen inches. Owing to 

 drainage, the European breeding places of the avocet are now restricted to certain 

 islands off Denmark and Holland, the marshes of Southern Spain, the delta of the 



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AVOCETS. 

 (One-fourth natural size. ) 



Rhone, and the lagoons of the Black Sea; but to the eastward it nests in Palestine, 

 Persia, Turkestan, the southwest of Siberia, etc., and also in Africa. In winter 

 these birds resort to India, China, and, more rarely, Japan; and they reach their 

 European breeding places in April and May, and depart in September. The North 

 American avocet (K. americana) , ranging from the Great Slave Lake to Texas, 

 differs at all seasons by its white secondaries, and in the breeding plumage by the 

 pale chestnut hue of the head and neck. The habits of the avocets are so similar 



