AVOCET. 627 



particularly tame ; when fired at two were killed and one 

 wounded ; the survivors, however, did not attempt to fly 

 away, till the shooter advanced to pick up the dead birds. 

 Two of these Avocets are now in the Chichester Museum ; 

 the third, the wounded one, was purchased by Mr. Tuff- 

 nell, of Mundham, who placed it in his garden, where it 

 was killed by a cat." Zoologist , vol. i. 



Mr. Selby records one that was killed at Hartley in 

 Durham, and Dr. Fleming says it is only an occasional 

 straggler into Scotland. 



The food of the Avocet consists of worms, aquatic in- 

 sects, and the thinner-skinned crustaceous animals which 

 these birds search for on soft mud and sand, occasionally 

 wading deep when at their feed. It is said that the par- 

 ticular marks made by the singular form of the beaks of 

 these birds in the sand while searching for food are recog- 

 nisable, while their stooping mode of action, and the cha- 

 racter of the beak itself, have induced the provincial names 

 of Scooper, and CoblerVawl Duck. Bewick mentions that 

 when the female is frightened off her nest, she counterfeits 

 lameness, flying round with the legs hanging down and the 

 neck extended, uttering a sound like twit, twit, repeatedly, 

 from which they are sometimes called Yelpers ; but when 

 necessity prompts, the flight is powerful and rapid. 



The nest is said to be made in a small hole in the drier 

 parts of extensive marshes ; the eggs are said to be only 

 two in number, of a clay coloured brown, spotted and 

 speckled with black, about two inches in length, by one 

 inch and a half in breadth. 



M. Nilsson states that this bird visits Sweden but rarely, 

 yet it is said to breed in Holstein, and the eggs are occa- 

 sionally brought to this country for sale by dealers from 

 Hamburgh. M. Temminck says that the Avocet isabund- 



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