LONG-LEGGED AVOSET 



49 



together. These sometimes again subdivide into lesser parties; 

 but it rarely happens that a pair is found solitary, as during the 

 breeding season they usually associate in small companies. On 

 their first arrival, and indeed during the whole of their residence, 

 they inhabit those particular parts of the salt marshes pretty high 

 up towards the land, that are broken into numerous shallow pools, 

 but are not usually overflowed by the tides during the summer. 

 These pools or ponds are generally so shallow, that with their long 

 legs the Avosets can easily wade them in every direction, and as 

 they abound with minute shell fish, and multitudes of aquatic in- 

 sects and their larvae, besides the eggs and spawn of others depo- 

 sited in the soft mud below, these birds find here an abundant 

 supply of food, and are almost continually seen wading about in 

 such places, often up to the breast in water. 



In the vicinity of these bald places^ as they are called by the 

 country people, and at the distance of forty or fifty yards off, 

 among the thick tufts of grass, one of these small associations, 

 consisting perhaps of six or eight pair, takes up its residence du- 

 ring the breeding season. About the first week in May they be- 

 gin to construct their nests, which are at first slightly formed of a 

 small quantity of old grass scarcely sufficient to keep the eggs from 

 the wet marsh. As they lay and sit, however, either dreading the 

 rise of the tides or for some other purpose the nest is increased in 

 height, with dry twigs of a shrub very common in the marshes, 

 roots of the salt grass, sea weed, and various other substances, the 

 whole weighing between two and three pounds. This habit of 

 adding materials to the nest after the female begins sitting, is com« 

 mon to almost all other birds that breed in the marshes. The 

 eggs are four in number, of a dark yellowish clay color, thickly 

 marked with large blotches of black. These nests are often placed 

 within fifteen or twenty yards of each other; but the greatest har- 

 mony seems to prevail among the proprietors. 



VOL. VII» N 



