STILT, AVOCET. 



503 



FIG. 286. STILT. 



slenderness of their legs, and for the peculiar form of their bills. 

 Although not numerous, the Stilts 

 are found in every quarter of the 

 globe ; the species which occasion- 

 ally visits England and western 

 Europe, being spread throughout 

 Asia and Africa, another being 

 met with in Australia, and two 

 others in America. They fre- 

 quent marshes, shallow-lakes, salt 

 pools, &c. ; and feed upon minute 

 shell-fish, insects, Crustacea, &c. 

 They construct their nests in the 

 vicinity of these ; six or eight 

 pairs uniting to build a sort of 

 platform, by which the nests may 

 be raised above the level of the water. The immense length of 

 their legs, and the wide spread of their toes, adapts them admi- 

 rably for wading ; and when they get beyond their depth, they 

 can swim with facility ; but they cannot walk with steadiness 

 upon hard ground. Their wings are long, however, and they fly 

 with great swiftness. In the Avocet, the bill is of extraordinary 



length, and slenderness ; 

 and curves upwards to- 

 wards the tip. Although 

 this conformation renders 

 it unfit for being plunged 

 in the mud in search of 

 food, it adapts it most 

 admirably to skim its 

 surface in the manner of 

 a light scoop ; and thus 

 to take up the minute 

 insects and worms on which the Bird feeds. The way in which 

 it avails itself of the harvest of worms and larvae, small crusta- 

 ceous and molluscous animals, the spawn of fishes, &c., which 

 are half imbedded in the mud at the bottom of the fens and 



FIG. 2R7- AVOCKT. 



