AVOCET.— BLACK-WINGED STILT. 215 



Chichester, told Mr. Knox {' Zoologist/ p. 329) that at a 

 late period he saw a flock of five Avocets at Pagham Har- 

 bour; he shot two and wounded another; the survivors, 

 however, did not attempt to fly away until he had advanced 

 to pick up the dead bird. He had previously observed their 

 mode of feeding, and noticed the same ploughing of the 

 sand as in the Spoonbill, but with this difference, that the 

 Avocet ploughed with the convexity of the bill. Two of 

 these are now in the Chichester Museum ; the wounded one 

 was purchased by Mr. Tuflfnell, of Mundham, and placed in 

 his garden. Here the same action was observed of plough- 

 ing, or mowing, from right to left in the grass, or rather 

 brushing it from side to side. Mr. Allen Bell, writing from 

 Hastings in January 1870 (' Zoologist,^ p. 2024, s. s.), states 

 that he was shown an Avocet in immature dress, which was 

 one out of a flock of three shot at Rye, during the snowy 

 weather of the previous December. 



From the form of the bill it was formerly known in 

 Sussex as the Cobbler's Awl. 



BLACK- WINGED STILT. 

 Himant&pus candidus. 



This remarkable and extremely rare visitor has been ob- 

 served in the county but a few times, and at very long 

 intervals. It does not breed in Britain. In his account of 

 ' Five Months Birds'-nesting in the Eastern Atlas,' Mr. O. 

 Sahdn gives the following account of the habits of this 

 bird : — " Abundant at Zana, a few pairs occurring at Djendeli 

 and Guerah el Tharf. Over the whole of the lower end of 

 the Marsh of Zana and Chot Saboun the Stilt breeds in 



