AVOCET. GRALLATORES. RECURVIROSTRA. 91 



THESE elegant, though singular birds are not uncommon 

 upon the eastern coasts of England south of the Humber, 

 and breed in certain parts of the fenny districts of Lincoln- 

 shire and Norfolk; and also in Romney Marsh in Kent. 

 They are occasionally, but rarely, met with in the north of 

 England, and in Scotland. During winter, they assemble 

 in small flocks, and frequent the oozy and muddy shores, 

 particularly about the mouths of rivers, where they obtain 

 a plentiful supply of food, consisting of small worms and 

 marine insects, as well as the young univalve and bivalve 

 mollusca. Their mode of feeding is by scooping, or, as it Food, 

 were in appearance, beating the soft mud with their flat and 

 upturned bill ; and, when thus engaged, they are frequently . 

 seen wading up to their breasts in the pools left by the re- 

 ceding tide. They are never seen to swim voluntarily, al- 

 though furnished with feet so extensively palmated as to 

 have induced the earlier systematists to place them amongst 

 the swimming birds ; but this structure is an admirable pro - 

 vision for enabling them to traverse the soft and yielding 

 substance in which they find their food. Their legs also are 

 formed for wading, by being laterally compressed, and thin, 

 thus offering the least possible resistance to their progress 

 through the water. They are quick and active birds, and 

 their flight, from the form and dimensions of their wings, is 

 powerful and rapid. In spring, they resort to the marine 

 marshes, which are only occasionally or partially covered by 

 the tide, and select the driest part for nidification. The 

 eggs are of a greenish- white, spotted with black. If dis- Nest, &c. 

 turbed at this season, particularly when the young are firsi 

 excluded, these birds fly round in repeated circles, uttering 

 at the same time, without intermission, their peculiar cry, 

 which resembles the word twit twice repeated. The geogra- 

 phical distribution of this species is very extensive, it being 

 found throughout the greater part of temperate Europe. In 

 Asia, it inhabits Siberia, and is very plentiful upon the 

 shores of the Caspian Sea, and on the salt-lakes of Tartary. 



