174 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



well out of harm's way notwithstanding. Its flight is very similar 

 to that of the Stilt, the neck and legs being outstretched, and in 

 the air its strongly contrasted black and white plumage gives it a 

 very singular appearance. Like the Stilt it is also more or less 

 gregarious, especially in winter, when the flocks are sometimes 

 very large ; and it also possesses the habit of running for a little 

 way either just before or after flight. This species frequently 

 alights on the sea, but although it swims well it is not known to 

 dive. The food of the Avocet is composed of small worms, 

 crustaceans, and various kinds of aquatic insects and their larvae. 

 Much of this food is obtained as the bird scoops or draws its long, 

 slender, up-turned bill from side to side across the surface of the 

 soft mud or sand. The bill is never probed into the surface. 

 Occasionally an insect is caught as it sits on the water or flits 

 slowly by. The Avocet often feeds whilst wading in the shallows, 

 and sometimes its head is actually pushed under the surface. 

 When food is captured the bird generally swallows it by tossing 

 up the head. The note of this bird is a somewhat low yet clear 

 tii-it, til-it, most persistently uttered when its breeding grounds 

 are invaded. 



Nidification. — The breeding season of the Avocet com- 

 mences early in May in Jutland ; but in the valley of the Danube, 

 where all birds for some unknown reason nest later, the eggs are 

 not laid until the beginning of June. This bird breeds in colonies 

 of varying size, and all through the nesting season is most sociable. 

 The nests are either placed on the bare sand or mud or on the 

 short herbage of the marshes, and are little more than hollows 

 into which a few scraps of withered herbage are collected. The 

 eggs are generally three or four in number, but in rare cases five 

 are said to have been found. They are pyriform in shape, and 

 pale buff in ground colour, spotted and blotched with blackish 

 brown, and with underlying markings of gray. They measure on an 

 average i"95 inch in length by i"4 inch in breadth. Both parents 

 assist in the duty of incubation, which according to Naumann 

 lasts from seventeen to eighteen days. Only one brood is reared 

 in the year, after which event the birds become even more 

 gregarious. The exact manner in which the old birds, with 

 their long, recurved beak, convey food to the young is still 



