AMERICAN AVOSET. 
RECURVIROSTRJI AMERICJINJI. 
[Plate LXIIL— Fig. 2.] 
Arct. Zool. Ab.421.-LATH. Syn. v. \p. 296, No. 2.—Ind. Om. 787, Ab. 2.— Peale’s 
Museum^ No» 4250. 
THIS species, from its perpetual clamour and flippancy of 
tongue, is called, by the inhabitants of Cape May, the Lawyer ; the 
comparison, however, reaches no farther ; for our Lawyer is sim- 
ple, timid, and perfectly inoffensive. 
In describing the American Stilt of this volume, the similarity 
between that and the present was taken notice of. I found both 
these birds associated together on the salt marshes of New Jersey, 
on the twentieth of May. They were then breeding. Individuals 
of the present species were few in respect to the other. They flew 
around the shallow pools exactly in the manner of the Stilt, ut- 
tering the like sharp note of clich click click, alighting on the marsh 
or in the water indiscriminately, fluttering their loose wings, and 
shaking their half bent legs, as if ready to tumble over, keep- 
ing up a continual yelping note. They were, however, rather 
more shy, and kept at a greater distance. One which I wounded 
attempted repeatedly to dive ; but the water was too shallow to 
permit him to do this with facility. The nest was built among the 
thick tufts of grass, at a small distance from one of these pools. It 
was composed of small twigs of a sea-side shrub, dry grass, sea- 
weed, &c., raised to the height of several inches. The eggs were 
four, of a dull olive color, marked with large irregular blotches of 
black, and with others of a fainler tint. 
