384 CHAEADKIIDJi KECURVIROSTKA 



Nelspoort, February (Layard), Colesberg, breeding (Ortlepp), Wor- 

 cester, Deelfontein, January, Middleburg, July (S. A. Mus.), Port 

 Elizabeth (Eickard) ; Natal Newcastle, October (Feilden) ; German 

 South-west Africa Ondonga, Otjimbinque, Walfisch Bay, Angra 

 Pequena (Andersson) ; Zambesi Valley (Kirk). 



Habits. The Avocet is usually found along the coast, at the 

 mouths of tidal rivers and on the shores of lagoons ; it is also 

 occasionally met with inland. It is generally seen in small flocks 

 and is somewhat shy and wary. Its diet consists of small insects 

 and worms and Crustacea ; these it obtains on the mud banks, em- 

 ploying its curiously shaped up-curved bill with a sideways scooping 

 action, which leaves a zigzag mark on the soft mud or sand ; it may 

 also be observed wading up to the tarsal joints in shallow water ; 

 its flesh is said to be good eating. 



FIG. 125. Head of Recurvirostra arocetta. x 1. 



Layard obtained eggs from the Berg River, where it breeds in 

 considerable numbers, and also from the neighbourhood of Coles- 

 berg, where Ortlepp found it nesting in the shallow vleis. Layard 

 describes the nests as being placed on the summit of a slightly raised 

 hummock on marshy ground which is always damp and generally 

 flooded. The nest cavity is lined with dry sedge or grass, and the 

 eggs, usually four in number, are placed with their pointed ends 

 together in the centre. The young are very precocious, running and 

 swimming beautifully within a short time after they are hatched. 



Eggs in the South African Museum are pale buff, some with a 

 slight greenish tinge spotted and scrolled with dark brown or black, 

 together with a few underlying secondary spots of pale purplish. 

 In shape they are pyriform and pointed and they measure about 

 2-0 x 1-45. 



