672 SCOLOPACIDJ}. 



mandible grooved along the side. Nostrils on the upper surface of the 

 beak, near its base, linear, long. Legs slender, long, great portion of the 

 tibia naked ; three toes in front, hind toe small, articulated high up on 

 the tarsus, the anterior toes united as far as the second articulation, by a 

 membrane, the margin of which is concave. Wings pointed; the first 

 quill-feather the longest in the wing. 



THE AVOCET is certainly a singular-looking bird, both 

 in reference to its beak and its feet ; but it is also as hand- 

 some as it is singular. The beak is curved upwards, is 

 slender, pointed, and flexible, having very much the ap- 

 pearance of a thin piece of elastic whalebone, and is, to the 

 bird, I have no doubt, a delicate organ of touch ; while the 

 semi-palmated feet seem only intended to support the bird 

 on soft mud, as it never attempts to paddle or swim when 

 out of its depth, but allows itself to float along motionless. 

 This bird is apparently more rare now than formerly. Sir 

 Thomas Browne says they were not uncommon in his time 

 in th marshy lands of Norfolk, and some years ago I was 

 told that more than twenty specimens were received at 

 Leadenhall Market for sale within one month ; but now 

 scarcely an example appears once in a year : the last I 

 heard of was in the spring of 1837. 



Mr. Thompson says it is a very rare visitor to Ireland ; 

 one or two have been killed in Cornwall, and they were 

 noticed formerly in Gloucestershire and in Shropshire. 

 Four are recorded as having been obtained in Devonshire ; 

 one or two in Dorsetshire. Mr. Markwick, in his Catalogue 

 of the Birds of Sussex, printed in 1795, says, " This bird is 

 not uncommon on our sea-coast in summer ; but whether it 

 is to be found here in winter I cannot tell, as I do not re- 

 collect to have ever seen it at that season. That it breeds 

 here I have been an eye-witness, for I remember that 

 several years ago, I found in the marshes near Rye a 

 young one of this species, which appeared to have been 

 just hatched, and I took it up in my hands, whilst the old 



