Genus RECURVIROSTRA or AVOCETS. 



Type RECURVIROSTRA AVOCETTA. 



Recurvirostra of Linnseus (1766). — The birds comprising 

 the present genus are characterised by combining a long, slender, 

 deeply recurved bill with webbed feet, a hind toe, and a white 

 mantle. In one aberrant species the mantle is black, and in 

 another the bill is nearly straight, and the hind toe is absent. 

 The wings are long and pointed, the first primary being the 

 longest ; the tail is rounded. The tarsus is long and finely 

 reticulated ; a great portion of the tibia devoid of feathers. The 

 bill is long, weak, and flexible, and recurved for its entire length ; 

 nostrils linear and elongated. 



This genus is composed of five species, which are locally 

 distributed in the Australian, southern Nearctic, Patearctic, 

 Ethiopian, and Neotropical regions ; Oriental region in winter. 

 One species formerly bred in, but is now a rare straggler to, the 

 British Islands. 



The Avocets are dwellers on flat, sandy coasts, marshes, 

 lagoons, and mud-banks. Their flight is airy, graceful, and well- 

 sustained, and on the ground they walk and run with graceful 

 ease. They swim and wade. Their notes are shrill and mono- 

 tonous. They subsist principally on worms, crustaceans, and 

 aquatic insects. They make scanty nests on the ground, and 

 their eggs, three or four in number, are spotted. They are 

 monogamous, social, and gregarious. 



