216 
AMERICAN AVOSET. 
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 extremity, where it bends slightly down, ending in an ex- 
tremely fine point; irides reddish hazel; whole head, neck and 
breast, a light sorrel colour; round the eye, and on the chin, 
nearly white; upper part of the back and wings black; scapulars, 
and almost the whole back, white, though generally concealed 
by the black of the upper parts; belly, vent and thighs, pure 
white; tail 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, ex- 
actly'- 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 cir- 
cumstances 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 aquatic insects. The intestines were infested 
