or little-known Limicolse. 
245 
into the thorax. The trachea is about six inches and a half 
long, and a quarter of an inch in diameter, its rings very thin 
and unossified, and the bronchi short. The proventriculus is an 
inch long, and half an inch in diameter; the gizzard of an 
oblong shape, about an inch and a half long and nearly an 
inch wide, the epithelial lining tolerably thick and hard. 
The intestine is between three and four feet long, and about 
the third of an inch in diameter; the rectum two inches 
long, and the caeca about two and a half and two and three- 
quarter inches respectively. 
The gizzard has generally been found to contain small 
shells and particles of grit, remains of small crustacea, worms, 
beetles, and sometimes vegetable fibre. 
Various details have been published from time to time of 
what may be termed the better-known species of Avocets; 
but these details are scattered throughout a multitude of dif¬ 
ferent volumes, and reference to them involves no little time 
and trouble. 
The species, however, are so few in number that the present 
seems a fitting opportunity for bringing together some of the 
more important observations which have been published con¬ 
cerning them. 
Linnseus thus describes the genus 
“ Recurvirostra. Rostrum depresso-planum, subulatum, 
recurvatum, acuminatum, apice flexili. Pedes palmati, 
tridactyliV 
He was mistaken, however, in writing “ tridactyli,” as in 
all the known species there is a hind toe present. 
Recurvirostra avocetta, Linnseus. 
Recurvirostra avocetta , Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 256 (1766), et 
auct. recent. 
Recurvirostra europcea, Dumont, Diet, des. Sc. Nat. iii. 
p. 339 (1816). 
Recurvirostra tephroleuca , Vieillot, Enc. Meth. p. 360 
(1823). 
Recurvirostra halebi, Brehm, Vogelf. p. 325. 
Recurvirostra sinensis, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1867, p. 400. 
