THE AVOCET 



[ORDER: Charadriiformes. SUBORDER: Limicolce. FAMILY: Charadriidce. 



SUBFAMILY : Himantopodince] 



PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 



[F. C. R. JOURDAIN. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON] 



AVOCET [Recurvirostra avocetta Linnaeus. Cobbler' s-awl or cobbler' s-awl 

 duck, scooper, shoeing-horn, yelper, barker, klinker. French, avocette ; 

 German, Avosett-Sabler ; Italian, avocetta]. 



i. Description. The avocet is at once distinguished by the long, slender, 

 upturned beak. The sexes are alike, and there is no seasonal change of coloration. 

 (PL 122.) Length 18 in. [457-19 mm.]. The top of the head and hind-neck are 

 black. The back is marked by a pair of long, curved, black bands, formed in part 

 by the interscapulars, the hindmost of which are of great length, and in part by 

 the scapulars. The wing-coverts are black, with the exception of the major series, 

 which are white, and the primaries are black ; the rest of the plumage is white. 

 The beak is black, the iris reddish brown, and the legs and toes are of a pale bluish. 

 The juvenile differs from the adult plumage in having the top of the head and 

 hind-neck brownish black ; the mantle pale brown, barred with darker brown. 

 The interscapular and scapular areas, which are black in the adulti ftfe- hfe.r dark i 



coffee-brown, while the areas white in the adult are washed with**pale bro-wj^ anc} . 



*. *" **"".; **.* . 



variegated with irregular submarginal bands of dark brown. The wings' are* as In* 



the adult, but with the black areas of a rusty black, while the tips of the long inner 

 secondaries are pale brown barred with submarginal bands of darker brown. The 

 nestling in down is pale grey above, relieved by an imperfect longitudinal line of 

 black on the crown, and two incomplete lines of black along the back, and a broad 

 semicircular band passing round the hinder end of the body. The under parts are 

 white, [w. P. P.] 



VOL. III. 3 H 



746315 



