AVOCET. 77 



a nest containing four eggs. In five minutes we found five more nests, 

 three containing four eggs each, and the others only two. Over each 

 nest a snare was placed. One Avocet only flew over whilst we were there, 

 probably the mate of the captured bird ; it uttered its somewhat feeble 

 and monosyllabic cry. The nests were mere hollows in the short grass, 

 with a small handful of dry grass and leaves as lining. We waited some 

 time, and a pair of birds came back. They seemed to have swanT ashore, 

 as they came from the sea, and were not seen to alight. They did not 

 appear to have discovered that the nests had been robbed ; for when some 

 Gulls came over they flew up at them and chased them away with screams. 

 Rejoining our conveyance we crossed some shallow water and made for the 

 " dunes." About halfway across we came upon a party of perhaps fifty 

 Avocets walking in the shallow water and moving their bills from side to 

 side in the sand at the bottom, occasionally tossing up their heads. We 

 tried to stalk them with our heavy conveyance ; but our driver made a 

 muddle of it, and a right and left barrel failed to get us a second specimen. 

 The nests I found in the valley of the Danube on the 10th of June, 1883, 

 were most of them slight, but some had more foundation than others. 

 They were always built on the dry land. 



The eggs of the Avocet are three or four in number, but in exceptional 

 cases it is said that as many as five have been found. They are pale huffish 

 brown in ground-colour, spotted and blotched with rich dark brown, and 

 with underlying markings of grey. They are pyriform in shape, and are 

 subject to but little variety in colour. On some specimens the spots are 

 small and evenly dispersed over the entire surface, whilst on others they 

 more frequently take the form of irregular blotches. They vary in length 

 from 2*0 to 1'9 inch, and in breadth from 1*45 to 1*35 inch. Some eggs 

 of the Avocet are almost indistinguishable from certain varieties of the 

 eggs of the Grey Plover and the Lapwing ; but, as a rule, the eggs of the 

 former are richer in ground-colour, and those of the latter are smaller, 

 darker, and more heavily marked. It is said that both parents assist in 

 incubating the eggs. Only one brood appears to be reared in the year. 

 Some doubt exists as to how the old birds feed their young ; and as no 

 one has yet observed them being fed by their parents, the interesting 

 question is still undecided. During winter the Avocet is even more gre- 

 garious than in summer. Large flocks are formed, sometimes containing 

 hundreds of individuals, which frequent the sea-coasts, as well as the inland 

 lakes and marshes. 



The adult male Avocet in breeding-plumage has the head and nape 

 extending to the back of the neck, the primaries, scapulars, and a band 

 across the wing, reaching from the shoulder almost to the tips of the 

 innermost secondaries, black ; the remainder of the upper parts and the 

 whole of the underparts are white. Bill black ; legs and feet light blue ; 



