﻿POOD OF AMERICAN PHALAROPES, AVOCETS, AND STILTS 13 



After the breeding season avocets are more quiet and sedate and 

 pay little attention to those who may visit their haunts, except to 

 walk up and inspect them with mild curiosity. Flocks of the birds 

 search lor food scattered about in shallow water, and do not hesitate 

 to swim when necessary in crossing the deeper channels. Frequently 

 a dozen or more feed in company, walking slowly along, shoulder to 

 shoulder, as though in drill formation, at each forward step thrusting 

 the head under water and sweeping the recurved bill along the bot- 

 tom with a scythe-like swing that must arouse consternation among 

 water-boatmen and other aquatic denizens of the bays and ponds. 

 At times the writer has observed as many as 300 of these handsome 

 birds feeding thus in a single company, a scene at once spirited and 

 striking. The hunter who through idle curiosity chances to kill one 

 of these beautiful birds near his blind may well repent his wanton- 

 ness, as other avocets with low calls gather about and examine the 

 body of their former comrade with the greatest solicitude. 



The avocet stomachs studied in the present work come in the main 

 from California, Utah, Saskatchewan, and North Dakota. In all 67 

 stomachs were examined, taken during a continuous period of eight 

 months from March to October. Animal food in these amounted to 

 65.1 per cent and vegetable to 34.9 per cent. 



When feeding, avocets prefer shallow bays or ponds with muddy 

 bottoms where the water varies from half an ineh to 4 inches or more 

 in depth. Some have supposed that the extreme thinness of the bill 

 was caused by abrasion on sandy bottoms, a theory without basis, as 

 the form of the bill conforms to the shape of the bones of the mandibles 

 and no wear is apparent. As the birds feed much of the time by im- 

 mersing the head, anything that may touch the bill is gathered in- 

 discriminately, as in feeding they depend upon the sense of touch. 

 From their manner of feeding, avocets are often scavengers, taking 

 living or recently dead prey without much choice. The large tape- 

 worms found almost without fail in the duodenum of the avocet are 

 transmitted from one bird to another in this manner. The cast-.off 

 terminal segments of the worms (bearing the eggs) are picked up and 

 swallowed by other avocets, a proceeding which the writer has per- 

 sonally observed. Avocets also pick up matter floating in the water, 

 on or near the surface, or take insects and seeds from mud bars. The 

 insects may be those living in such localities or may be individuals 

 that have been washed up in drift. 



ANIMAL FOOD 



Crustacea. — Though represented only by remains of a flattened 

 phyllopod known as Ayusi, crustaceans amount to 8.6 per cent of the 

 total food. These strange animals inhabit shallow ponds but are so 

 local in distribution that they may be found only occasionally in long 

 distances, so that they are hardly a common article of bird food. 

 Large numbers had been eaten by the three avocets in which such 

 remains were founrl. 



Odonata. — ^Dragonfly nymphs were found in three avocets killed 

 in May and June, but amounted only to 0.1 per cent of the total food. 



HemijAera. — True bugs were more staple diet, and were common 

 in occurrences, though forming only 5.9 p(T cent of tlie bulk of the food. 

 Thev were identifiiid in 26 of the birds examined. Back-swimmers 



