30 
AMERICAN AVOSET. 
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, exactly formed, thinned, and netted, 
like those of the long-legs ; feet, half webbed ; the outer mem- 
brane 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 circumstances 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 shellfish, some kind of mossy 
vegetable food, and a number of aquatic insects. The intes- 
tines were infested with tape-worms, and a number of smaller 
bot-like worms, some of which wallowed in the cavity of the 
abdomen. 
In Mr Peale’s collection, there is one of this same species, 
said to have been brought from New Holland, differing little 
in the markings of its plumage from our own. The red brown 
on the neck does not descend so far, scarcely occupying any 
of the breast ; it is also somewhat less. 
In every stuffed and dried specimen of these birds which I 
have examined, the true form and flexure of the bill is alto- 
gether deranged, being naturally of a very tender and delicate 
substance.* 
* Mr Ord farther observes, “ it is remarkable, that in the Atlantic states this 
species invariably affects the neighbourhood of the ocean ; we never having known 
an instance of its having been seen in the interior ; and yet Captain Lewis met 
