Shore-bird Shooting 331 



shores of the lakes they frequent ; but the female, 

 as in the remaining families of the order, does at 

 least her share of the incubation. 



AMERICAN AVOCET 



(Recurvirostra americand) 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage Head, neck, and 

 breast, cinnamon, becoming white about the bill and fading 

 below into the white of the under parts ; wings, brownish, black 

 on inner scapulars and lesser coverts ; terminal half of greater 

 coverts and inner secondaries, white ; tail, gray ; remainder of 

 plumage, white ; iris, red ; legs and feet, pale gray ; bill, black. 



Adult male and female in winter plumage Similar to the breed- 

 ing plumage, but head, neck, and breast are white instead of 

 cinnamon. 



Young Resembles the winter plumage, but the primaries are 

 tipped with white ; scapulars and back, mottled with buff; neck 

 posteriorly tinged with rufous. 



Measurements Length, 18 inches; wing, 9 inches; oilmen, 3.50 

 inches; tarsus, 3.75 inches. 



Eggs Four in number; light drab, with blotches of sepia-brown; 

 oboval ; measure 1.85 by 1.30 inches. 



Habitat Breeds in the interior of North America from western 

 Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California, 

 north to Idaho, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North Dakota, and 

 rarely Great Slave Lake. Winters from the coast of Louisiana, 

 Texas, and southern California south to Central America and 

 the West Indies. Not common east of the Mississippi River, 

 but has been taken from Florida to New Brunswick. 



The avocet is a westerner, frequenting the plains 

 from as far north as Great Slave Lake, through 

 the table-lands into Mexico. In Chihuahua, May, 

 1901, we found these birds in large flocks, often 

 of several hundred individuals. Dabbling along 



