LONG-LEGGED PLOVER. 77 



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. 



While the females are sitting, the males are either 

 wading through the ponds or roaming over the adjoining 

 marshes ; but should a person make his appearance, 

 the whole collect together in the air, flying with their 

 long legs extended behind them, keeping up a continual 

 yelping note of click, click, click. Their flight is steady, 

 and not in short, sudden jerks, like that of the plover. 

 As they frequently alight on the bare marsh, they drop 

 their wings, stand with their legs half bent, and trem- 

 bling, as if unable to sustain the burden of their bodies. 

 In this ridiculous posture they will sometimes stand 

 for several minutes, uttering a curring sound, while, 

 from the corresponding quiverings of their wings and 

 long legs, they seem to balance themselves with great 

 difficulty. This singular manoeuvre is, no doubt, 

 intended to induce a belief that they may be easily 

 caught, and so turn the attention of the person, from 

 the pursuit of their nests and young, to themselves. 

 The red-necked avoset practises the very same decep- 

 tion, in the same ludicrous manner, and both alight 

 indiscriminately on the ground or in the water. Both 

 will also occasionally swim for a few feet, when they 

 chance, in wading, to lose their depth, as I have had 

 several times an opportunity of observing. 



The name by which this bird is known on the sea 

 coast is the stilt, or tilt, or long-shanks. They are but 

 sparingly dispersed over the marshes, having, as has 

 been already observed, their particular favourite spots, 

 while, in large intermediate tracts, there are few or 

 none to be found. They occasionally visit the shore, 

 wading about in the water and in the mud, in search of 



