AVOCETS AND STILTS 



(Family Recurvirostridce) 



American Avocet 



(Recurvirostra americana) 



Called also: BLUESTOCKING; WHITE SNIPE; SCOOPER. 



Length — \6 to 20 inches. 



Male and Female : In summer — White, changing into cinnamon, 

 on neck and head; shoulders and wings brownish black, 

 except the middle coverts, the tips of the greater ones, and 

 part of the secondaries, which are white. Very long, ex- 

 cessively slender black bill, curved upward. Legs very 

 long and of a dull blue. In winter: Similar, but head and 

 neck ashy or pearl gray like the tail. 



Range — Temperate North America, nesting from Texas north- 

 ward to Great Slave Lake, and wintering in Central America 

 and the West Indies. Rare in the eastern United States. 

 Irregularly common in the interior. 



Season — Summer resident or spring and autumn migrant. 



The avocet, like the skimmer, the sea parrot, and the 

 curlew, possesses one of the most extraordinary bills any bird 

 wears. Slowly swinging it from side to side, as a farmer 

 moves his scythe, the eccentric looking bird wades about in 

 the shallows, feeling on the bottom for food that cannot be seen 

 through the muddy water. Often the entire head and neck 

 must be immersed to probe the mud for some small shell fish 

 and worms that the sensitive, needle-like bill dislodges. A 

 leader usually directs the motions of a small flock that follows 

 him through thick and thin, mud and water; or, if the water 

 suddenly deepens, off swim the birds until their feet strike 

 bottom again, and the mowing motion is resumed, while the 

 sickle bills feel and probe and jerk as the mowers move 

 along deliberately and gracefully. The curlew's tool, the true 



198 



