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CHAPTER VIII. 
TATTLERS, &C. : THE AVOCET STILTSHANK AND LONG- 
SHANK DUSKY AND COMMON REDSHANKS GREEN AND 
WOOD TATTLERS WHITE-BREASTED AND SPOTTED WEET- 
WEETS. 
TT7E have here a family of birds so closely allied to the 
f V Sandpipers, that by most authors they are placed in 
the same group, in company with the Snipes. They possess, 
however, certain characteristics which seem to entitle them 
to a distinct arrangement, and are therefore, in Macgil- 
livray's History, placed under the head Totaimice^ or Tat- 
tlers. They are mostly remarkable for their slender bills 
and bodies, and elongated legs. They are true waders, 
living on the sea shore and marshy grounds by lakes, rivers, 
&c., feeding on mollusca, insects, and Crustacea, which they 
obtain in the water, or mud and slime, which they probe 
with their long bills ; they are swift runners, and have a 
rapid, buoyant, and wavering flight ; when standing, they 
have a remarkable way of vibrating and balancing 
their bodies, giving one the impression that they are likely 
to fall, which, however, they never do. They are mostly 
migratory birds, and either construct very slight nests, or 
lay their eggs in a mere hollow, lined with a few vegetable 
fibres. They lay four spotted pear-shaped eggs. The British 
species of this family are nine in niimber. 
The Black and White Avocet {Eecurvirostra Avo- 
cetta), also called the Scooping Avocet, the Scooper, the 
Crooked Bill, the Cobbler's Awl, the Yelper, is the sole 
British representative of the genus Recurvirostraj birds 
with upturned beaks. — The bill of this bird is more than 
twice the length of the head, very slender, somewhat flat- 
tened, and tapering towards the point, and so curved as to 
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