674 SCOLOPACID^;. 



wounded ; the survivors, however, did not attempt to fly 

 away, till the shooter advanced to pick up the dead birds. 

 Two of these Avocets are now in the Chichester Museum ; 

 the third, the wounded one, was purchased by Mr. Tuff- 

 nell, of Mundham, who placed it in his garden, where it 

 was killed by a cat." Zoologist) vol. i. 



Within the last three years, one example has been taken 

 near Plymouth, one at Newhaven, and seven in Norfolk. 

 In 1854, fifteen Avocets were bought for the Zoological 

 Society's Gardens, in the Regent's Park, and formed an 

 interesting group. They were obtained in the market at 

 Ghent. 



Mr. Selby records one that was killed at Hartley, in 

 Durham, and Dr. Fleming says it is only an occasional 

 straggler into Scotland. 



The food of the Avocet consists of worms, aquatic in- 

 sects, and the thinner-skinned crustaceous animals, which 

 these birds search for on soft mud and sand, occasionally 

 wading knee-deep when at their feed. It is said that the 

 particular marks made by the singular form of the beaks of 

 these birds in the sand while searching for food are recog- 

 nisable, while their stooping mode of action, and the cha- 

 racter of the beak itself, have induced the provincial names 

 of S cooper and Cobbler's-awl Duck. Bewick mentions that 

 when the female is frightened off her nest, she counter- 

 feits lameness, flying round with the legs hanging down 

 and the neck extended, uttering a sound like twit, twit, 

 repeatedly, from which they are sometimes called Yelpers ; 

 but when necessity prompts, the flight is powerful and rapid. 



The nest is said to be made in a small hole in the drier 

 parts of extensive marshes : the eggs are said to be only 

 two in number, of a clay-coloured brown, spotted and 

 speckled with black, about two inches in length, by one 

 inch and a half in breadth. 



