AVOSET. 



13 



however, are admirably adapted to its mode of life, and are of peculiar 

 use in diving- under water, where they act as fins ; by which means it 

 pursues its prey with astonishing velocity. 



*This bird is only found in the most northern parts of the kingdom ; 

 is said to breed in the isle of St. Kilda, from which Dr. Fleming had 

 one in 1822. Like the rest of this genus it lays only one egg, white, 

 sometimes irregularly marked with purplish lines, or blotched with ferru- 

 ginous and black at the larger end : length six inches. It feeds on fish, 

 but the young birds will eat rose root, ( Rhodiola rosea ) or other plants. 

 Mr. Bullock also informed Dr. Fleming, that an individual was taken 

 in a pond of fresh water, two miles from the Thames, on the estate of 

 Sir William Clayton, in Buckinghamshire. When fed in confinement, 

 it holds up its head, expressing its anxiety by shaking the head and 

 neck, and uttering a gurgling noise. It dives under water, even with 

 a long cord attached to its foot, with incredible swiftness.*. 



AUSTRIAN PRATINCOLE. — A name for the Pratincole. 



AVES (Linnaeus.) — Birds ; the second class of the animal kingdom 

 in the Linnsean System. 



AVOSET {JRecurvirostra^ LiNNiEUS.)— A genus of which only 

 one species is British. 



AVOSET (Recurvirostra Avocetta, Linn^us.) 



Linn. Svst. p. 156. 1.— Gmel. S Y st. 2. p. 693.— Bris. 6. p. 538. t. 47.— Ib. 8vo. 2. 

 p. 604.— Raii, Syn. p. 117. A. I.— Will. p. 340. t. 60.— Will. Angl. p. 123.— 

 L'Avocette, Buf. 8. p. 466. t. 38.— Scooping Avocet. Br. Zool. 2. No. 228. 

 t. 80.— Lath. Syn. 5. p. 293. 1.— Ib. Sup. p. 263. Avocetta.— Ind. Orn. 2. p. 

 786. 1.— Don. Br. Birds, t. 66.— Lewin, Br. Birds, 6. t. 202 — Wale. Syn, 2. t. 

 165.— Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 16.— De Kluit, Sepp. 1. p. 67 .—Temm* 2.— 

 Flem. Br. Anim. p. 101. 



The length of this species to the end of the tail is eighteen inches, 

 to the end of the toes twenty-two : weight thirteen ounces. Bill black, 

 flexible like whalebone ; irides dusky. The upper part of the head, 

 and half the hinder part of the neck, black ; the cheeks and whole under 

 parts of the bird are pure white ; outer scapulars, middle coverts of the 

 wings, and greater quill-feathers, black ; the ridge of the wings, greater 

 coverts, back, and tail, white ; legs bluish grey ; toes webbed about half 

 their length. 



The Scooper is the only species found in England. It breeds in the 

 fens of Lincolnshire, and on Romney Marsh in Kent. It does not 

 migrate like other birds of similar habits, but is found at all seasons, 

 though in winter it chiefly frequents the sea-shore ; and, besides on 

 the coast of Kent, it is found about the mouth of the Severn in 

 Gloucestershire, as well as on the eastern coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, 



