76 
HIMANTOPUS NIGRICOLLIS. 
observer of nature, tke true relationship of these 
remarkable birds. 
Strongly impressed with these facts, from an intimate 
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 abun- 
dant 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 
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 
