562 AVOCET. 
Solway district it is unknown. North of the Humber and along 
the east coast of Scotland it is seldom seen, though stragglers have 
been met with in the Shetlands, Orkneys and Outer Hebrides. In 
Ireland its rare visits have been chiefly to the south, but one occur- 
rence is on record from the estuary of the Moy in the west. 
The Avocet still finds breeding-places in some districts of Den- 
mark and along the southern shores of the Baltic, as well as in the 
Frisian Islands and on the coast of Holland; and southward, the 
delta of the Rhone in France and that of the Guadalquivir in Spain 
may be mentioned. It occurs in Northern France and on the coasts 
and inland waters of the greater part of the Continent on both 
spring and autumn migrations, while it is to some extent resident in 
the basin of the Mediterranean, and becomes abundant on the 
margins of the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas. Eastward, it extends 
across temperate Asia to Northern China in summer, and as far 
south as Ceylon in winter. In Africa it-is found down to Damara- 
land and Cape Colony—in both of which it is said to nest, and it 
occurs in Madagascar. Representative species inhabit North 
America, the Andes of South America, and the Australian region. 
The eggs are laid in May, on bare cracked mud near water, in 
some slight depression in the sand, or among scanty herbage ; their 
number is normally 3-4, and in colour they are clay-buff, blotched 
and spotted with black : measurements about 2 by1‘5in. The usual 
note is a clear 4/uit, whence the bird’s Dutch name. The Italian 
designation ‘“ avocetta” and the Spanish ‘“ boceta” may be derived 
from docinetta or some similar colloquial diminutive of the classical 
word duccina (a curved trumpet), with reference to the shape of the 
bill. To obtain the worms, aquatic insects and thin-shelled crus- 
taceans on which the bird chiefly feeds, this bill is employed with 
a sideways scooping action which leaves zig-zag marks on the soft 
mud or sand, whence the name “scooper;” while the Avocet was 
also known as “cobbler’s-awl duck ” and “ shoeing-horn,” and, from 
its cry, as “yelper,” “ barker,” and “ clinker.” 
In spring the plumage of the adult is black and white, as shown in 
the engraving ; the slender, pointed, and flexible bill is black, and 
resembles two thin flat pieces of whalebone coming to a point and 
turning upwards ; the irides are reddish-brown ; legs and toes pale 
blue. Length nearly 18 in. (bill 3:2), wing 8°5 in. After the 
autumn moult the light portions of the plumage are greyish. In the 
young the dark portions are tinged with brown and edged with 
rufous. The bill is distinctly upcurved in the nestling of only a day 
or two old. 
