20 SCOLOPACID.E. 



in company with ducks or other 'water-birds, the peculiarity of 

 its habits is more perceptible ; it dips its beak from time to time 

 in the water in the same manner as on the ground, but never 

 puts its head under, being content with skimming the surface. 

 In consequence of the delicate nature of its sharp-pointed and 

 soft beak, sandy or shingly ground will not suit its habits. 



The chosen spots for breeding are on the uneven ground 

 near their usual haunts, where short marine vegetation and 

 grass cover the ground, just above high-water mark. They 

 always breed in companies close together, the nest itself being 

 a hollow scratched in the ground and lined with a few grasses 

 and dry roots of marine plants : in it three or four eggs are 

 deposited, as represented in our plate, and these are in- 

 cubated in turn by both male and female. In eighteen days 

 the young are able to creep out of the shell, and leave the 

 nest as soon as they are dry enough. If any one approaches 

 the nest during the time of incubation, the parent birds fly 

 circling round the intruder, uttering their call or alarm-note; 

 the young birds secure their safety as soon as they can run about 

 by squatting close to the ground in the hollows of its surface, 

 or between patches of vegetation, and are very difficult to find. 



The male measures about eighteen inches, in length, and 

 the female seventeen inches. The adult bird has the top of 

 the head, nape, and two-thirds of the back of the neck 

 black; the scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, and quill-feathers 

 also black : the rest of the feathering is pure white, with a 

 tinge of pale buff on the under parts. Its beak is black ; the 

 iris deep red-brown ; the legs bluish- ash colour. The male 

 and female are alike, but the young of the year have the 

 parts which are black in the adult (with exception of the 

 quill-feathers) umber-brown, with paler edges, and the white 

 is more or less tinged with raw-umber; iris dusky, as well 

 as the beak. 



The egg figured 185 is that of the Avocet. 



