38 AVOSET. 



Scooping Avoset, Gen.Syn.v. 293. Id. Sup. 263. Br. Zool. ii. No. 228. pi. 80. Id. 



fol. 134. pi. C. Id. Ed. 1812. ii. 143. pi. 25. Arct. Zool. ii. 503. B. Albin, i. 



pi. 101. Bewick, ii. pi. p. 15S. Lewin, vi. pi. 202. Id. pi. xxxviii. i. the egg. 



Wale. ii. pi. 165. Do?;, pi. 66. P«/f. Dors. p. 16. Orn. Diet. Graves, Br. Orn. 



SIZE of a Lapwing; length from eighteen to twenty inches to 

 the end of the tail, but to that of the claws about three more; the 

 breadth thirty ; weight fourteen ounces and a half troy. Bill three 

 inches and a half long, slender, very flat, and turns up towards the 

 end, finishing in a sharp point; nostrils narrow, and pervious; the 

 irides hazel ; top of the head, including the eyes, black, passing- 

 some way down on the neck, and ending in a point ; above and 

 beneath the eye a spot of white ; the rest of the head and neck, and 

 all beneath white; back, greater part of the scapulars, outer part of 

 the wing, lesser quills, and tail the same ; inner scapulars, middle 

 wing coverts, the outer webs, and ends of the greater quills, black, 

 appearing as two black bars, three quarters of an inch broad ; wider 

 as they approach the rump ; legs very long, pale blue, and the thighs 

 naked for two inches ; whole of the naked parts between six and 

 seven inches. The male and female much alike. 



The Avoset inhabits this kingdom at all seasons ; is frequent in the 

 winter on the sea Shores ; in Gloucestershire, at the Severn's Mouth ; 

 the eastern coasts of Suffolk and Norfolk, and sometimes on the 

 shores of Sussex and those of Shropshire,* as well as those of Kent: f 

 in the breeding season found in vast numbers near Fossdike, in Lin- 

 colnshire, in the fens of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and other similar 

 places; the female generally lays two eggs, among the weeds, on 

 the edges of ponds or pools, about the size of those of the Pigeon, 

 one inch and three quarters in length, cinereous grey, whimsically 

 marked with deep, brownish, oblique black dashes, and some smaller 

 ones intermixed ; the food is said to be worms and insects, % collected 

 from the mud ; often seen to wade far into the water ; they will also 



* Lin. Trans. f Mr. Boys twice met with them in October. 



£ Chiefly the Cancer pulex and locusta — the sea-flea and locust ; and in the stomach of 

 one was found some small stones, and short hairs. — Dr. Lamb. 



