198 



Order XIII 



swampy ground from the Humber to Suffolk, in Kent 

 and in Sussex; it now does so locally in temperate 

 Europe and Asia and southwards in Africa to Cape 

 Colony. The note is a clear " whit," the food of 

 insects, worms, crustaceans, and so forth, the flight 

 often performed in circles. The nest, if any, is very 

 shght, the three or four stone-coloured eggs with black 

 blotches often lying on bare mud or sand, where there 



f 



Avocets 



is little or no vegetation. In colour the Avocet is 

 plain black and white, but it has a most extraordinary 

 bill, which has been hkened to a couple of long flat 

 pieces of whale-bone pointed and upcurved at the tips. 

 The feet are also long, and the toes half-webbed. The 

 food is scooped up with a sidelong action of the biU, 

 whence the bird has been called the " Scooper." Other 

 names are "Cobbler's awl" and "Shoe-horn." 



