176 AYOCET. 



in a marsh, or on a bank, just above high-water mark, 

 among the short grass, or other marine vegetation. It is 

 lined with a little of those materials. The eggs are described 

 as being usually two, but sometimes three or four in 

 number, brown or greenish white, spotted and speckled with 

 black. The young are hatched in eighteen days, and leave 

 the nest almost immediately. If chased, they hide themselves, 

 with much success, among the scanty cover. 



Male; weight, from twelve to fourteen ounces; the usual 

 weight is thirteen; length, nearly one foot six inches. The 

 bill of this elegant bird, at once its 'decus et tutamen,' is 

 adapted by the all-wise Providence of GOD, for the prosecution 

 of the individual instinct with which He has endowed it; it 

 is about three inches and a half in length, and black in 

 colour, and curved upwards, and somewhat flexible; iris, deep 

 reddish brown; over it there are sometimes a few white 

 feathers in a line, and sometimes there is a little, white on 

 the forehead. Head on the crown, neck on the back, and 

 nape, black; chin, throat, and breast, white; back on the 

 upper part, black; on the lower, white. 



The wings have the first quill feather the longest, when 

 closed they reach rather beyond the end of the tail, and 

 when extended measure two feet and a half across; lesser 

 wing coverts, black; primaries, black. Legs, long, stout, and 

 delicate pale blue, or blue grey; the toes are of the same 

 colour; they are semipalmated, that is, the three front ones; 

 the hind one is only rudimentary. The whole plumage is 

 smooth and compact. 



The female is about one foot five inches in length. In 

 other respects she is like the male. 



In the young of the year, the bill is dusky; iris, dusky; 

 the black parts of the plumage are tinged with brown, and 

 during the second year, till the autumnal moult, some of 

 the feathers are still reddish brown at the end. 



The quantity and distribution of the black colour in the 

 Avocet varies in different specimens. 



