AMERICAN AVOSET. 
133 
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 ex- 
tremity, where it bends slightly down, ending in an extremely fine 
point ; irides reddish hazel ; whole head, neck and breast, a light 
sorrel color ; round the eye, and on the chin, nearly white ; upper 
part of the back and wings black ; scapulars and almost the whole 
back white, tho 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 eoverts 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 Stilt; 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. 
A female which I obtained was two inches shorter than the 
above described, 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 contain- 
ed a great number of eggs, some of them nearly ready for exclu- 
sion. 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 with tape-worms, and a num- 
2 I. 
VOL. VII. 
