184 



KEARTONS' NATURE PICTURES 



it with wonderful fidelity on the walls 

 of their temples more than two thousand 

 years before the Christian era. 



AVOCET'S NEST. 



The nest of the Avocet is sometimes 

 only a slight natural hollow in the sun- 

 baked mud, with a scanty lining of 

 straws, whilst at others it is a more 

 elaborate structure. My old friend, Mr. 



R. B. Lodge, who has had many and 

 excellent opportunities of studying the 

 species, records the finding of several 

 nests in Spain lined with the moulted 

 feathers of flamingoes. 



The eggs, which generally number 

 three or four in a clutch, are of a 

 clayish-buff ground colour, spotted 

 and blotched with black. Both sexes 

 share in the work of incubation, which 

 is said to last seventeen or eighteen 

 days. 



The adult birds convey food to their 

 young one in the same way that puffins 

 carry sand eels crosswise in their bills. 



The Avocet is not a particularly shy 

 bird, and will trip daintily along a 

 stretch of wet sand or wade shallow 

 pools and creeks in search of food 

 comparatively close to a quiet observer, 

 and may be photographed at the nest 

 from any suitable hiding contrivance 

 with comparative ease. 



When disturbed on the nesting ground 

 the members of a colony rise into the 

 air, and fly round and round the in- 

 truder with their long legs stretched 

 out behind whilst they constantly utter 

 their alarm cries. 



