AVOCET. 



S59 



the same time strong and well supplied with muscles, 

 so that it can act powerfully in those directions 

 which the habits of the bird require. The head is of 

 moderate size, and compact ; and the head, neck, and 

 under parts of the body are feathered in the same man- 

 ner as water birds, so that they sustain no injury, 

 aud indeed are hardly wetted when immersed in 

 water. 



The bill is the most singular part. It is very long, 

 flexible, and apparently sentient, at least it is covered 

 with membrane and supplied with vessels, like the 

 bills of snipes, woodcocks, and other birds which are 

 understood to find their food by the touch of that in- 

 strument. But the greatest peculiarity of the bill is 

 its form. Most sentient bills are straight or nearly so, 

 and some have a slight inclination upwards ; but the 

 bill of the avocet turns upwards with a bold curve, es- 

 pecially toward the tip, the point of the under man- 

 dible projecting a little beyond that of the upper. It 

 is in fact such a bill as, judging from the ordinary 

 ones which we are in the habit of seeing upon land 

 birds, or even from the diving bills of swans or the 

 dabbling bills of ducks, we would be very apt to call 

 awkward, and suppose unfit for any useful purpose. 

 But there is no awkwardness or unfitness in nature ; 

 and when we meet with an organ of nature's making-, 

 \ve may always be assured that, however awkward it 

 appears to us, it is the very best adapted to that par- 

 ticular purpose or use for which it is intended. We 

 have already had instances of that in the case of the 

 feet of some of the mammalia, especially in those of 

 the sloths [see Ai], over which sentimental naturalists 

 have mourned as if nature had botched them in the 

 making ; and yet, notwithstanding the wonder of 

 ordinary observers, and the sentimental bemoanings 

 of those half-informed persons, the sloth is a perfect 

 master-piece of mechanical science and skill, a crea- 

 ture to be wondered at certainly ; but to be wondered 

 at for the perfection of its structure and the beauty of 

 its adaptation, aud not for its uncommon, and as we 

 on that account think, its ungainly form. The sloth 

 is a singular animal certainly ; and it has a singular 

 office to perform in the economy of nature : it must 

 move about, and find its food, and take its repose, in a 

 position the very reverse of that of most of the mam- 

 malia. One instance might suffice to teach us that 

 when we meet with what appears to us to be an 

 unwonted or a curious'organ, we may look for an un- 

 wonted or a curious office which that organ performs ; 

 and therefore instead of stopping to wonder at the 

 peculiarity, we should endeavour to make ourselves 

 masters of the lesson to which it points. 



The bill of the avocet is so singular, so different 

 from those bills with which we are familiar, that we 

 may be sure that the avocet has some singular habits ; 

 and that the sight of the bill in action, or even the 

 knowledge of how it acts, must be far more curious 

 far more worthy of our rational attention than the 

 mere form itself, peculiar as that certainly is. But 

 the avocet is a shy and retiring bird, as well as a bird 

 of very local and peculiar haunts, so that few can see 

 it at work, and therefore the description of its work- 

 ing becomes the more necessary. 



The avocet may be considered as the last bird 

 upon land, the one which requires but a few very 

 slight alterations in order to launch it upon the waters 

 aud make its " home upon the deep." Indeed it 

 cannot be said to be strictly a bird of the land at all, 

 though it sleeps upon the land, and also nestles and 



rears its young there. But many of the most seaward 

 birds resort to the rocks and banks for repose, and 

 there is no bird which permanently rests upon the 

 waters, nor in fact that builds a floating nest, though 

 some have been alleged to do so from the circumstance 

 of their nests being sometimes floated by casualties. 

 The avocet is not a bird of the water either, it is a 

 bird of the margin, the line where land and water 

 meet : it is one of the few birds, if not the only one, 

 which is exclusively so ; and therefore we might 

 look for some peculiarities in it, distinct from both 

 land birds and water birds. 



Avoctfts are fen birds ; but, in feeding, they fre- 

 quent only those parts of the fens which are alter- 

 nately flooded and left dry by tidal waters, or the 

 small water-courses which discharge their contents 

 immediately into them. Their bills are not adapted 

 for catching any kind of food upon land ; neither are 

 they fitted for fishing in the waters. Both land and 

 water are therefore cut off from them, and retained as 

 the preserves of other races. Even the common soft 

 sludgy ground of the- marsh, into which the snipes 

 and woodcocks bore for food, is a forbidden pasture 

 to the avocet, as its bill is not adapted for boring. 

 Thus its proper pasture is very much narrowed ; and 

 in no country can it be a bird generally distributed 

 over the surface, or even one very abundant in 

 numbers. 



But though the pastures of the avocet are thus local 

 and limited, they are very rich, andthefood upon which 

 it generally subsists is so situated that it hasfew rival?. 

 The regular shore-birds, and even the wagtails and some 

 of the other birds which haunt the margin of thn 

 waters, pick up the same kind of food when they sec 

 it ; and many of the swimming-birds dabble for it 

 when the waters are in. But the time that the avocet 

 feeds is when the general surface of the mud is clear 

 of water, and there are only little runs trickling or 

 creeping along in the hollows. The number of living 

 creatures, or of creatures ripening into life, which is 

 contained in the mud, ooze, or light gravel of theso, 

 is immense. Worms, and larvce, and small mollus- 

 cous and crustaceous animals, are in great plenty ; 

 aud the myriads of the spawn of fishes in their sea- 

 sons (and as these vary they extend over a consider- 

 able portion of the year), together with the young fry 

 of the same, are beyond all the powers of arithmetic. 

 The greater number of these are imbedded to a small 

 depth, and those that are not get rolled along by the 

 moving sludge, and partially covered by it. 



These accumulated matters, which are not seen by 

 birds which feed by the sight, and are not sta- 

 tionary enough for being either bored or dabbled for, 

 are the harvest of the avocet ; and the way in which 

 it avails itself of that harvest has some resemblance 

 to reaping, or rather perhaps to mowing. It moves 

 along the run with slow but rather lengthy steps, aud 

 scoops the ooze or mud in curves, right and left, as 

 it proceeds. The traces of its scoopings may be 

 seen by any one who happens to come to the place 

 where it has been feeding before the tide rises to 

 efface them ; but the bird itself is so shy and wary, 

 that it can be seen by those only who, themselves con- 

 cealed, have patience to watch for it. In scooping it 

 does not use the bill only, but the whole body ; and 

 as the fixed point from which the action is delivered 

 is the foot, it has a wide swing ; while, as the exertion 

 is divided among so many acting parts, it can conti- 

 nue it for a long time without fatigue. 

 A A2 



