KEY TO THE WATER BIRDS OF FLORIDA. 271 
Famity RECURVIROSTRIDX. Avocets anp STILTS. 
Genus RECURVIROSTRA Linn. 
Recurvirostra americana. 
RECURVIROSTRA AMERICANA Gumel. 
American Avocet, 
Adult in summer: Bill very slender and curved upwards; feet partly webbed; general plu- 
mage white, becoming cinnamon brown on the head and neck, but remaining whitish at the 
base of the bill; primaries black; most of the secondaries white, forming a broad white patch 
on the wing; tail ashy gray ; legs bluish; bill black. 
Adult in winter: Head and most of the neck ashy gray; tail ashy gray ; rest as in summer 
plumage. 
Length, 18 to 20; Wing, 7.50 to 9; Tail, 3.50; Bill, 3.25 to 3.75; Tarsus, 3.60. 
This is a western species which ranges from the Great Slave Lake 
southward to Central America and the West Indies; is not common on the 
Atlantic coast north of Florida. Stragglers have been recorded as far north 
as the Bay of Fundy, but it is a very rare bird in New England. 
The eggs are from three to four in number, pale grayish olive spotted 
with very dark brown. 
