AVOCET 255 



Kent, and Sussex. It may also have bred in Staffordshire as 

 long ago as 1686. About 1824 a large breeding-colony was 

 annihilated by persons, who,- for successive years, made a 

 wholesale raid on the eggs which they used for cooking- 

 purposes, while the birds themselves were victimised for 

 the sake of their feathers which were used for ' flies ' for 

 fishing. Of later date the Avocet was little known as a 

 nesting-species in England, though Clarke and Roebuck in 

 the ' Vertebrate Fauna of Yorkshire ' adduce evidence that 

 this species bred at the mouth of the Trent in 1840 (New- 

 ton, Diet. Birds, p. 24). 



Geographical distribution. Abroad, it breeds in limited 

 numbers in Holland, Denmark, Germany, France, and more 

 abundantly in Southern and South-eastern Europe, Tem- 

 perate Asia, and in Africa down to the Cape. In winter 

 it reaches Southern India and Ceylon, and is also found 

 in Madagascar. About the basin of the Mediterranean it is 

 resident to some extent (Saunders). 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Top of head, upper 

 part of cheeks, hind-neck, middle of the back, primaries, and 

 most of the wing-coverts, black ; rest of the plumage, white. 



Adult female nuptial. Similar to the male plumage. 



Adult winter, male and female. The white colouring 

 becomes greyish. 



Immature, male and female. Chiefly white, with brown 

 markings, which are edged with rufous, instead of black as 

 in the adult. 



BEAK. Black. Flattened and rather expanded at the 

 base, becoming pointed towards the extremity ; flexible and 

 upcurved. 



FEET. Light bluish-grey ; toes, semi-webbed. 



IRIDES. Beddish-brown. 



AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 



TOTAL LENGTH 18 in. 



WING 8-5 



BEAK 3'25 



TARSO-METATARSUS 3 



EGG 2 X 1'5 in. 



