EECITBVIBOSTBA AYOCETTA. 
(THE COMMON AYOCET.) 
Recurmrostra avocetta, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 256 (1766); Gould, B. of Eur. iv. pi. 368 
(1837) ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 265 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 
1854, xiv. p. 265; Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 706; Schelgel, Mus. P.-B. Scolopaces, 
p. 105 (1864); Layard, B. of S. Africa, no. 617 (1867); Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, 
p. 405; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 475; Shelley, B. of Egypt, p. 260 (1872); Ilume, 
Str. Feath. 1873, p. 248 ; Adam, t. c. p. 397 ; Gould, B. of Gt. Brit. iv. pi. 53 ; Harting, 
Ibis, 1874, p. 245; Yon Heuglin, Orn. N.Ost-Afr. ii. p. 1175 (1874); Dresser, B. of 
Europe, pt. 46 (1875); Irby, B. of Gibraltar, p. 164 (1875); Blanford, Zool. Persia, 
p. 286 (1876) ; Butler & Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 18 ; David & Oustalet, Ois. de la 
Chine, p. 461 (1877) ; Blakiston & Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 220 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1878, 
vii. p. 289 ; id. ibid. 1879, viii. p. 113 (List of Ind. B.). 
Recurmrostra eur op tea, Dumont, Diet, des Sc. Nat. iii. p. 339 (1816). 
Recurmrostra tephroleuca , Vieillot, Enc. Meth. p. 360 (1823). 
Recurvirostra sinensis, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1867, p. 401. 
Avocette , Brisson ; Scoping Avocet, Lath. & Pennant ; Sabelsclinabler, German ; Roceta, 
Spanish (Saunders); Alfayate, Frade, Portuguese (Smith); Halebi, Arabic (Von 
Heuglin) ; Bou-mehet, Moorish (Favier). ShilocluvJca, Russians in Central Asia (Preje- 
valsky) ; Kusya chaha, Bengal. (Jerdon). 
Adult male and female (China). Length IS'0 inches ; wing 8'7 to 9-2 ; tail 4'0 ; tarsus 3-0 ; middle toe (without claw) 
1-5 ; bill, measured straight from base to tip, 3*2 to 3-5. The larger dimension relates to males. 
(Europe : Brit. Mus.) Wing 8'7 inches ; tail 4-0 ; tarsus 3'2 ; bare tibia 2-8 ; middle toe 1-5 ; bill at front (straight) 
3-3. Another example has the bill at front (straight) 3-0. 
Iris red or brownish red ; bill blackish horn ; legs and feet bluish grey ; “ soles of the feet tinged with buff ” {Harting). 
(Athens.) Plumage white ; top of the head, including the lores and upper part of the face, the hind neck, shorter 
scapulars and an adjacent dorsal patch, lesser and median wing-coverts, tertial feathers, and the primaries, black ; 
this colour descends down the hind neck in a broad band of half an inch in width. In birds which are not fully 
adult the central tail-feathers are sullied with brown. 
Young. The bill is stated at first to be straight {Cullen)-, but it appears to assume the curved shape after a few days. 
Nestling in down. Bill at front 0'68 inch; tarsus 1T2. Dusky grey above, with an irregular band down the centre 
of the back, and a stripe on each side of the rump ; the back also mottled openly with brown ; a thin stripe 
through the lores and behind the eye. 
Further stage, hade and wings feathered. Head and nape brown ; hind neck and back fulvous tawny ; scapulars white 
outwardly ; an angular patch of brown on the interscapulars ; the tips of the feathers buff ; wing-coverts and 
tertials brown, margined with buff ; secondaries white ; primaries black ; face and all beneath white. Bill at 
front 1-75 inch ; tarsus 1*75. 
Immature birds have the black parts sullied with brown and the central tail-feathers brownish. 
Obs. This interesting genus comprises three species besides the present, two of which are peculiar to America, and 
the third to Australia. R. americana, Gfmelin, which inhabits North America, south of Hudson’s Bay, including 
California, and extends into Mexico and Central America, is distinguished from the present by having in the 
summer the head and neck pale sandy red, blending into the white on the chin and forehead, and below into the 
6 c2 
