LONG-LEGGED AVOSET. 
341 
acquaintance with the living subjects, in their native wilds, I 
have presumed to remove the present species to the true and 
proper place assigned it by Nature, and. shall now proceed to 
detail some particulars of its history. 
This species arrives on the sea coast of New Jersey about 
the 25th of April, in small detached flocks, of twenty or thirty 
together. These sometimes again subdivide into lesser parties ; 
but it rarely happens that a pair is found solitary, as, during 
the breeding season, they usually associate in small companies. 
On their first arrival, and, indeed, during the whole of their 
residence, they inhabit those particular parts of the salt marshes 
pretty high up towards the land, that are broken into numerous 
shallow pools, but are not usually overflowed by the tides 
during the summer. These pools, or ponds, are generally so 
shallow, that, with their long legs, the Avosets can easily 
wade them in every direction; and, as they abound with 
minute shell-fish, and multitudes of aquatic insects and their 
larvae, besides the eggs and spawn of others deposited in the 
soft mud below, these birds find here an abundant supply of 
food, and are almost continually seen wading about in such 
places, often up to the breast in water. 
In the vicinity of these bald places , as they are called by 
the country people, and at the distance of forty or fifty 
yards off, among the thick tufts of grass, one of these small 
associations, consisting perhaps of six or eight pair, takes up 
its residence during the breeding season. About the first 
week in May they begin to construct their nests, which are at 
first slightly formed of a small quantity of old grass, scarcely 
sufficient to keep the eggs from the wet marsh. As they lay 
and sit, however, either dreading the rise of the tides, or for 
some other purpose, the nest is increased in height, with dry 
twigs of a shrub very common in the marshes, roots of the salt 
grass, sea-weed, and various other substances, the whole 
weighing between two and three pounds. This habit of 
adding materials to the nest after the female begins sitting, is 
common to almost all other birds that breed in the marshes. 
The eggs are four in number, of a dark yellowish clay colour. 
