AMERICAN AVOCET. I07 



The Avocets near their breeding-places are very noisy, 

 quailing, and clamorous, flying around in circles near their 

 invaders, and in a sharp but plaintive tone uttering 'clik, 'clik, 

 'clik, in the manner of the Stilts or Long Legs {Himantopus), 

 with which at times they familiarly associate in small numbers 

 to pass the important period of reproduction. Like them also 

 they alight on the marsh or in the water indifferently, fluttering 

 their loose wings and shaking their tottering and bending legs 

 as if ready to fall, keeping up at the same time a continual 

 yelping. The nest, in the same marsh with the Stilts, was 

 hidden in a thick tuft of grass or sedge at a small distance 

 from one of their favorite pools. It was composed of small 

 twigs of some marine shrub, withered grass, sea-weeds, and 

 other similar materials, the whole raised to the height of 

 several inches. 



Bufibn, theorizing on the singular structure of the bill of the 

 Avocet, supposes it to be " one of those errors or essays of 

 Nature which, if carried a little further, would destroy itself; 

 for j/'the curvature of the bill were a degree increased, the bird 

 could not procure any sort of food, and the organ destined for 

 the support of life would infallibly occasion its destruction." 

 As it happens, however, and not as might be imagined, the 

 Avocet, no less than the Crossbill, continues not only to live, 

 but to vary its fare and obtain it with facility. Even the sloth, 

 that triumph on the occasional imbecility of Nature, so wretched 

 and lost upon the plain ground, for which the motions of its 

 peculiar and unequal limbs are not calculated, climbs up a tree 

 with facility, and, like the tribe of monkeys, is perfectly at ease 

 in its accustomed arboreal retreat. Let us then more wisely 

 content ourselves to observe Nature in all her ingenious 

 paths, without daring, in our ignorance, to imagine the pos- 

 sible failure of her conservative laws. 



The Avocet is a rather uncommon bird near the Atlantic coast, 

 and north of New Jersey is merely a straggler, a few examples 

 having been taken in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, and New 

 Brunswick. On the alkali plains of the West it is quite abundant, 

 and ranges as far north as Great Slave Lake. 



