FOOD OF AMERICAN PHALAROPES, AVOCETS, AND STILTS 13 
After the breeding season, avocets are more quiet and sedate and 
pay little attention to those who may visit their haunts, except to 
walk up and inspect them with mild curiosity. Flocks of the birds 
search for food scattered about in shallow water, and do not hesitate 
to swim when necessary in crossing the deeper channels. Frequently 
a dozen or more feed in company, walking slowly along, shoulder to 
shoulder, as though in drill formation, at each forward step thrusting 
the head under water and sweeping the recurved bill along the bot- 
tom with a scythe-like swing that must arouse consternation among 
water-boatmen and other aquatic denizens of the bays and ponds. 
At times the writer has observed as many as 300 of these handsome 
birds feeding thus in a single company, a scene at once spirited and 
striking. The hunter who through idle curiosity chances to kill one 
of these beautiful birds near his blind may well repent his wanton- 
ness, as other avocets with low calls gather about and examine the 
body of their former comrade with the greatest solicitude. 
The avocet stomachs studied in the present work come in the main 
from California, Utah, Saskatchewan, and North Dakota. In all 67 
stomachs were examined, taken during a continuous period of eight 
months from March to October. Animal food in these amounted to 
65.1 per cent and vegetable to 34.9 per cent. 
When feeding, avocets prefer shallow bays or ponds with muddy 
bottoms where the water varies from half an inch to 4 inches or more 
in depth. Some have supposed that the extreme thinness of the bill 
was caused by abrasion on sandy bottoms, a theory without basis, as 
the form of the bill conforms to the shape of the bones of the mandibles 
and no wear is apparent. As the birds feed much of the time by im- 
mersing the head, anything that may touch the bill is gathered in- 
discriminately, as in feeding they depend upon the sense of touch. 
From their manner of feeding, avocets are often scavengers, taking 
living or recently dead prey without much choice. The large tape- 
worms found almost without fail in the duodenum of the avocet are 
transmitted from one bird to another in this manner. The cast-off 
terminal segments of the worms (bearing the eggs) are picked up and 
swallowed by other avocets, a proceeding which the writer has per- 
sonally observed. Avocets also pick up matter floating in the water, 
on or near the surface, or take insects and seeds from mud bars. The 
insects may be those living in such localities or may be individuals 
that have been washed up in drift. 
ANIMAL FOOD 
Crustacea. — Though represented only by remains of a flattened 
phyllopod known as Apus, crustaceans amount to 8.6 per cent of the 
total food. These strange animals inhabit shallow ponds but are so 
local in distribution that they may be found only occasionally in long 
distances, so that they are hardly a common article of bird food. 
Large numbers had been eaten by the three avocets in which such 
remains were found. 
Odonata. — Dragonfly nymphs were found in three avocets killed 
in May and June, but amounted only to 0.1 per cent of the total food. 
Hemiptera. — True bugs were more staple diet, and were common 
in occurrence, though forming only 5.9 per cent of the bulk of the food. 
They were identified in 26 of the birds examined. Back-swimmers 
