AMERICAN AVOSET. 



127 



This species arrives on the coast of Cape May late in April; 

 rears its young, and departs again to the south early in October. 

 While here it almost constantly frequents the shallow pools in the 

 salt marshes ; wading about, often to the belly, in search of food, 

 viz\ marine worms, snails, and various insects that abound among 

 the soft muddy bottoms of the pools. 



The male of this species is eighteen inches and a half long, 

 and two feet and a half in extent; the bill is black, four inches in 

 length, flat above, the general curvature upwards, except at the ex- 

 tremity, where it bends slightly down, ending in an extremely fine 

 point; irides reddish hazel; whole head, neck and breast a light 

 sorrel color; round the eye and on the chin nearly white; upper 

 part of the back and wings black; scapulars and almost the whole 

 back white, tho generally concealed by the black of the upper 

 parts; belly, vent and thighs pure white; taiF equal at the end, 

 white, very slightly tinged with cinereous; tertials dusky brown; 

 greater coverts tipt with white; secondaries white on their outer 

 edges, and whole inner vanes; rest of the wing deep black; naked 

 part of the thighs two and a half inches; legs four inches, both of 

 a very pale light blue, exactly formed thinned and netted like those 

 of the Long-legs; feet half webbed; the outer membrane somewhat 

 the broadest; there is a very slight hind toe, which, claw and all^ 

 does not exceed a quarter of an inch in length. In these two latter 

 circumstances alone it differs from the Long-legs; but is in every 

 other strikingly alike. 



The female was two inches shorter, and three less in extent; 

 the head and neck a much paler rufous, fading almost to white on 

 the breast; and separated from the black of the back by a broader 

 band of white; the bill was three inches and a half long; the leg 

 half an inch shorter; in every other respect marked as the male. 

 She contained a great number of eggs, some of them nearly ready 

 for exclusion. The stomach was filled with small snails, periwinkle 

 shell fish, some kind of mossy vegetable food, and a number of 



