LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. 219 



This species arrives on the seacoast of New Jersey about the 

 twenty-fifth of April, in small detached flocks, of twenty or 

 thirty together. These sometimes again subdivide into lesser 

 parties; but it rarely happens that a pair is found solitary, as 

 during the breeding season they usually associate in small com- 

 panies. On their first arrival, and indeed during the whole of 

 their residence, they inhabit those particular parts of the salt 

 marshes pretty high up towards the land, that are broken into 

 numerous shallow pools, but are not usually overflowed by the 

 tides during the summer. These pools, or ponds are generally so 

 shallow, that with their long legs the Avosets can easily wade 

 them in every direction, and as they abound with minute shell- 

 fish, and multitudes of aquatic insects and their larvae, besides 

 the eggs and spawn of others deposited in the soft mud below, 

 these birds find here an abundant supply of food, and are almost 

 continually seen wading about in such places, often up to the 

 breast in water. 



In the vicinity of these bald places, as they are called by the 

 country people, and at the distance of forty or fifty yards off, 

 among the thick tufts of grass, one of these small associations, 

 consisting perhaps of six or eight pair, takes up its residence 

 during the breeding season. About the first week in May they 

 begin to construct their nests, which are at first slightly formed 

 of a small quantity of old grass, scarcely sufficient to keep the 

 eggs from the wet marsh. As they lay and sit, however, either 

 dreading the rise of the tides, or for some other purpose, the 

 nest is increased in height, with dry twigs of a shrub very 

 common in the marshes, roots of the salt grass, sea- weed, and 

 various other substances, the whole weighing between two and 

 three pounds. This habit of adding materials to the nest, after 

 the female begins sitting, is common to almost all other birds 

 that breed in the marshes. The eggs are four in number, of a 

 dark yellowish clay colour, thickly marked with large blotches 

 of black. These nests are often placed within fifteen or twenty 

 yards, of each other, but the greatest harmony seems to prevail 

 among the proprietors. 





