THE B.ETICAN WILDERNESS MAY. 



87 



spicuous. We found a few eggs of both on the mud-flats 

 to-day (May 5th), but a few daj^s later they were in 

 thousands. The Stilts make a fairly solid nest of dead 

 black stalks of tamarisk, &c., and lay four richly-marked 

 eggs, all arranged points inwards ; the Avocet's eggs are 

 larger and lighter in colour, and these birds seldom have 

 any nest at all, the three eggs merely laid at random on 

 the bare cracked mud, often an inch or two apart. Three 

 is the usual complement. 



A most curious picture do these singular birds present, 

 either while flying past or hovering overhead on quick- 



AV( )CET!<. 



beating pinions, with their absurdly long legs extending 

 far behind like dead straws. The Avocet is much the 

 more sj^rightly and game-like of the two, with his shrill 

 pipe and elegant flight, now rapid and "jerky," now 

 skimming low on the water. But we never tire of w'atch- 

 ing the quaint actions and postures of the Stilts, troops of 

 w'hich stalk sedately in the shallows close at hand. So 

 extremely long are the legs of this bird that, with their 

 short necks, they cannot reach down to the ground, nor 

 pick anything up therefrom. They are consequently only 

 to be seen feeding in water about knee-deep, for which 



