1 64 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



Avocet. It has seldom been my privilege to see it 

 on Breydon mud flats. The largest number I ever saw 

 together was on 4th May 1887, when four in a flock 

 passed by me within a few yards, so near, in fact, 

 that with regret I have to state I brought one 

 down to my gun. Such a beautiful creation certainly 

 ought to have been saved from my brutal hand. 

 But at that time I had an itching for both gun and 

 "specimens." The day before six had been seen, 

 but two were killed; and eventually nearly every 

 one was " accounted for." Another gunner, later on 

 the 4th, fired at the party, his gun being loaded 

 with swan-shot. He pricked one, and saw it falter 

 in its flight. Following the direction taken by the 

 birds, he at length came up with the wounded 

 one, swimming. Again he shot at it, when it 

 determinedly dived. Watching it in the deep water 

 of the channel below him, he saw the bird rising to 

 the surface to breathe, when, plunging in his hand, 

 he seized it ere it had reached the surface. 



The Avocet usually comes singly, and it is only 

 once in two or three years that it is noticed. It 

 then affects the society of the smaller gulls, Black- 

 heads in particular, from which it is not easily 

 distinguished, for the reason, perhaps, that it is so 



