50 cassell's book of birds. 



and ponds are, however, their favourite resorts, except during the breeding season, when they seek 

 the vicinity of fresh or brackish water. These birds are eminently social in their habits, and usually 

 live in small companies of from six to twelve individuals, only keeping apart in pairs during the period 

 of incubation, and again assembling, but in large flocks, throughout the winter months. Insects of 

 various kinds, principally flies, gnats, beetles, and larva;, form their principal means of subsistence, 

 and these they seize with equal address from the surface of the water, in the air, or from amidst the 

 mud and slime. In Egypt this species breeds in April, and in May constructs a careless nest of coarse 

 grass. Wilson tells us that a nearly-allied bird inhabiting America merely places a bed of dry grass 

 upon the marshy ground to receive the eggs when first deposited, but afterwards constructs a regular 

 nest of a variety of dry materials, which are heaped together till they frequently form a mass weighing 

 two or three pounds. The eggs, which are generally four in number, resemble those of the Peewit in 

 form and size, but have a far more delicate shell, of a brownish, olive, or greenish yellow, marked 

 with grey and reddish brown spots of various shapes and sizes, which are most thickly strewn over the 

 broad end. In Hungary the flesh of the Black-winged Stilt is eaten during the winter, but even at 

 that season is not very palatable. 



The SCOOPING AVOCETS (Recurvirostrd) are recognisable by their powerful body, moderately 

 long, thin neck, large head, and long slender beak, grooved on its sides to the middle, and compressed 

 towards its acute tip, which is curved either upwards or downwards. The margins are sharp and entire, 

 the bill hard and smooth. The long slender tarsi are covered with scales ; and the very long powerful 

 foot furnished with four toes ; the latter are sometimes united by a web in front, the hind toe being 

 either extremely short or undeveloped. The long, pointed wings have the first quill longer than the 

 rest. The short rounded tail is composed of twelve feathers. The plumage of the back is close and 

 compact, and that of the under side of downy texture. These birds inhabit most countries of our 

 globe, and frequent the swampy margins of rivers, or salt marshes, where they are usually seen in pools 

 of shallow water, fluttering their wings, and shaking their half-bent legs, an action which causes them 

 to appear as if they would tumble over, while at the same time they utter a sharp note like the syllable 

 " click " often repeated. Occasionally they are seen collected in small groups, on open downs covered 

 with grasses and other kinds of vegetation, when, if alarmed, they frequently run off in a straight line, 

 or fly very close to the ground. Their mode of feeding is by scooping, or as it were beating the soft soil 

 with their fiat upturned bill; and when thus engaged they are generally seen wading up to their breasts 

 in the pools left by the receding tide. They never swim voluntarily, although furnished with feet so 

 extensively palmated as to have induced the early systematists to place them among the swimming 

 birds ; nevertheless, this structure is an admirable provision to enable them to traverse the soft and 

 yielding mud in which they find their food. The nest is generally formed of dry grasses, seaweeds, 

 and small twigs, heaped up to the thickness of several inches, and placed among thick tufts of grass, 

 in the neighbourhood of shallow water. The eggs are four in number. 



THE SCOOPING AVOCET. 

 The Scooping Avocet (Recurvirostra avocetta) is black upon the top of the head, nape, shoulders, 

 and a large portion of the wings ; the rest of the latter and the remainder of the entire plumage is 

 white. The eye is reddish brown, the beak black, and the foot greyish blue. In the female, these 

 colours are less distinct ; in the young the black feathers have a brownish shade, and those on the 

 wings are edged with reddish grey. The upcurved bill of this bird is most remarkable, and entirely 

 unsuited to probe the ground or break the shell of ordinary-sized molluscs. The slightest frost, there- 

 fore, drives the Avocet to the oozy muddy flats of estuaries, bays, and similar situations, where it can 



