LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. 491 
the bill, legs, or feet, of the Plover; on the contrary, they are so 
entirely different, as to create no small surprise at the adoption and gen- 
eral acceptation of a classification, evidently so absurd and unnatural. 
This appears the more reprehensible, when we consider the striking 
affinity there is between this bird and the Common Avoset, not only in 
the particular form of the bill, nostrils, tongue, legs, feet, wings, and 
tail, but extending to the voice, manners, food, place of breeding, form 
of the nest, and even the very color of the eggs of both, all of which 
are strikingly alike, and point out, at once, to the actual observer of 
Nature, the true relationship of these remarkable birds. 
Strongly impressed with these facts, from an intimate acquaintance 
with the living subjects, in their native wilds, I have presumed to 
remove the present, species to the true and proper place assigned it by 
Nature, and shall now proceed to detail some particulars of its history. 
_ This species arrives on the sea-coast of New Jersey about the 25th 
of April, in small, detached flocks, of twenty or thirty together. These | 
sometimes again subdivide into lesser parties; but it rarely happens 
that a pair is found solitary, as, during the breeding season, they 
usually associate in small companies. On their first arrival, and, 
indeed, during the whole of their residence, they inhabit those particu- 
lar parts of the salt marshes pretty high up towards the land, that are 
broken into numerous shallow pools, but are not usually overflowed by 
the tides during the summer. These pools, or ponds, are generally so 
shallow, that, with their long legs, the Avosets can easily wade them 
in every direction; and, as they abound with minute shell-fish, and 
multitudes of aquatic insects and their larve, besides the eggs and 
spawn of others deposited in the soft mud below, these birds find here 
an abundant supply of food, and are almost continually seen wading 
about in such places, often up to the breast in water. 
In the vicinity of these bald places, as they are called by the coun- 
try people, and at the distance of forty or fifty yards off, among the 
thick tufts of grass, one of these small associations, consisting per- 
haps of six or eight pair, takes up its residence during the breeding 
season. About the first week in May they begin to construct their 
nests, which are at first slightly formed of a small quantity of old grass, 
scarcely sufficient to keep the eggs from the wet marsh. As they lay 
and sit, however, either dreading the rise of the tides, or for some 
other purpose, the nest is increased in height, with dry twigs of a 
shrub very common in the marshes, roots of the salt grass, sea-weed, 
and various other substances, the whole weighing between two and 
three pounds. This habit of adding materials to the nest after the 
female begins sitting, is common to almost all other birds that breed 
in the marshes. The eggs are four in number, of a dark yellowish 
clay color, thickly marked with large blotches of black. These nests 
are often placed within fifteen or twenty yards of each other; but the 
eatest harmony seems to prevail among the proprietors. 
While the females are sitting, the males are either wading through 
the ponds, or roaming over the adjoining marshes; but should a per- 
son make his appearance, the whole collect together in the air, flying 
with their long legs extended behind them, keeping up a continual 
yelping note of click, click, click. Their flight is steady, and not in 
short, sudden jerks, like that of the Plover. As they frequently alight 
