LONG-LEGGED PLOVER. 
77 
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 
ail other birds that breed in the marshes. The eggs 
are four in number, of a dark yellowish clay colour, 
thickly marked with large blotches of black. These 
nests are often placed within fifteen or twenty yards of 
each other ; but the greatest harmony seems to prevail 
among the proprietors. 
While the females are sitting, the males are either 
wadingthrough the ponds or roaming over the adjoining 
marshes ; but should a person make his appearance, 
the whole collect together in the air, flying with their 
long legs extended behind them, keeping up a continual 
yelping note of click , click , click. Their flight is steady, 
and not in short, sudden jerks, like that of the plover. 
As they frequently alight on the bare marsh, they drop 
their wings, stand with their legs half bent, and trem- 
bling, as if unable to sustain the burden of their bodies. 
In this ridiculous posture they will sometimes stand 
for several minutes, uttering a curring sound, while, 
from the corresponding quiverings of their wings and 
long legs, they seem to balance themselves with great 
difficulty. This singular manoeuvre is, no doubt, 
intended to induce a belief that they may be easily 
caught, and so turn the attention of the person, from 
the pursuit of their nests and young, to themselves. 
The red-necked avoset practises the very same decep- 
tion, in the same ludicrous manner, and both alight 
indiscriminately on the ground or in the water. Both 
will also occasionally swim for a few feet, when they 
chance, in wading, to lose their depth, as I have had 
several times an opportunity of observing. 
The name by which this bird is known on the sea 
coast is the stilt, or tilt, or long-shanks. They are but 
sparingly dispersed over the marshes, having, as has 
been already observed, their particular favourite spots, 
while, in large intermediate tracts, there are few or 
none to be found. They occasionally visit the shore, 
wading about in the water and in the mud, in search of 
