AVOCET. 17 



GRA LLA TORES. SCOL OP A CIDJE. 



PLATE CLXXXV. 



AVOCET. 



RECURV1ROSTRA AVOCETTA. 



The Avocet occasionally visits our eastern shores, such as 

 Durham, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Kent, and has been 

 known to breed in the fenny districts of Lincolnshire and 

 Norfolk, and in Romney Marsh ; but, owing to some un- 

 known circumstances, it does not occur so frequently as it 

 used to do, which is unaccountable enough, as it is rather 

 plentiful in North Holland. This bird is well known in many 

 parts of Europe and Asia, and spreads over most parts of 

 Africa from north to south. On the continent of Europe, it 

 ranges from Siberia through Tartary, Russia, the borders of 

 the Black Sea, Hungary, Italy, and Spain ; and is frequent in 

 France and the borders of the Baltic. In Sweden it is of 

 rare occurrence. 



This species is migratory, and arrives in this country about 

 April, and departs in September. We met with a very ex- 

 perienced sportsman a year or two ago in London, in a room 

 where an Avocet was preserved in a case. He remarked to us 

 that we might see plenty of these birds on the muddy flats at 

 the mouth of the Thames, where they run about in great 

 numbers beating the mud with^ their turned up beaks, in 

 order to rouse up the insects that lie concealed below the 



surface ; and this account agrees very much with a statement 



c 3 



