BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 



231 



AVOCET (Becurvirostra americana). 



Length. — Very variable, 16 to 20 inches; front toes webbed. 



Adult. — Back and most of wings black; remainder of plumage white, 

 excepting head and neck, which are mainly cinnamon brown in summer 

 and pale gray in winter, and tail, which is pearl gray; legs blue, much 

 of webs flesh color; bill black, long and upcurved; iris red or brown. 



Young. — Similar to winter plumage of adult. ( 



Notes. — ^A musical, loud ■plee-eek, hurriedly repeated (Chapman). Click- 

 click-click (Brewer). 



Range. — • North America. Breeds from eastern Oregon, central Alberta 

 and southern Manitoba (rarely north to Great Slave Lake) south to 

 southern California, southern New Mexico, northwestern Texas, north- 

 ern Iowa and central Wisconsin; winters from southern California and 

 southern Texas to southern Guatemala; casual from Ontario and New 

 Brunswick to Florida and the West Indies, but rare east of Mississippi 

 River. 



History. 

 In the first years of the nineteenth century the Avocet was 

 not uncommon on the Atlantic coast, where Wilson found it 

 breeding in small numbers as far north at least as the salt 

 marshes of New Jersey. TurnbuU (1868) says that George 

 Ord informed him that during his excursions to the coast with 



