248 CHAKADKIIDJ;. 



hind neck are light greyish brown, with white edges to the 

 feathers. 



Bill black ; irides red ; legs lake-red ; claws black. 



Length 15 ; tail 3*25 ; wing 9'5; tarsus 5 ; bill from gape 2-8. 



Distribution. Southern Europe, the whole of Africa, and 

 Central and Southern Asia. This Stilt is found throughout India, 

 Ceylon, and Burma in the cold season, in suitable localities, and 

 breeds in a few places. 



Habits, <$fc. This is a common bird in India wherever there are 

 marshes or tanks with shallow margins and not too much over- 

 grown with vegetation. It occurs'in large flocks and feeds on 

 insects, small molluscs, and worms. It has been found breeding, 

 from April to July, in large numbers about salt swamps, as at 

 Sultan pur Salt-works, south of Delhi, at Sambhur Lake, and in 

 several places in Ceylon. The eggs, usually 4 in number, some- 

 times 3, are very like plovers' : light drab, much blotched with 

 black; they measure about 1-64 by 1*21, and are laid in a hollow, 

 often built of fragments of stone, and usually lined with a little 

 grass. 



Genus RECURVIROSTRA, Linn., 1766. 



Bill very long, flexible, curved upwards towards the end, 

 depressed ; both mandibles flattened ; nostrils linear, long, each in 

 an ill-marked groove not half the length of the bill. Wings 

 long, pointed, 1st quill slightly the longest in general ; tail short. 

 Tarsus and bare tibia long; tarsus reticulated; hind toe very 

 e-mail, but furnished with a claw; anterior toes deeply webbed, 

 but webs notched in the middle. 



There are about four species of Avocet, widely distributed ; only 

 one is Indian. 



1 152. Recurvirostra avocetta. The Avocet. 



Recurvi rostra avocetta, Linn. Syst. Nat. \, p. 256 (1766) ; Blyth, 

 Cat. p. 265 ; Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 706; Stoticzka, J. A. S. B. xli, 

 pt. 2, p. 253 ; Hume, S. F. i, p. 2-J8 ; Adam, ibid. p. 397 ; ii, 

 p. 339; Hayes Lloyd, Ibis, 1873, p. 417 ; Sutler, S. F. iv, p. 18 ; 

 Hume, S. F. vii, p. 489; id. Cat. no. 899; Legge, Sink Ceyl. 

 p. 925; Reid, S. F. x, p. 453; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 362; 

 Sfiarpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 326. 



Kusya chaha, II. (Behar). 



Coloration. The whole forehead and crown to below the eyes, 

 nape and hind neck, inner scapulars, and a patch running out- 

 wards from their base, median wing-coverts, some of the tertiaries, 

 and the tips and greater part of the first seven or eight primaries 

 black, or in winter dark brown ; ail other parts white, middle tail- 

 feathers in winter tinged with brownish grey. 



Bill black ; irides red-brown ; legs pale bluish grey. 



Length 18 j tail 3'3 ; wing 9; tarsus 3-5 ; bill from gape to 

 point 3-25. 



