246 
Mr. J. E. Harting on rare 
Hab. Europe from 60° N. lat. to the Mediterranean; Asia 
from Siberia to Cochin China and Ceylon; Africa to the 
Cape. 
Diagn. R. alba; pileo, collo postico, scapularibus ex parte, 
tectricibus alarum, et remigibus primariis nigris; rostro ni- 
gro ; iride rufescenti-fusca; pedibus cseruleis ; long. tot. circa 
17*5 poll., rostr. 3*2-3*5, alse 8*5-9*0, tib. nud. 1*5-1*75, 
tars. 3 -3’4, dig. med. cum ung. 1*5-1*75. 
From what has been said above, it will be seen that this species 
has a very extensive geographical range, more so, in fact, than 
any other of the genus. In Europe it is pretty generally distri¬ 
buted but is not found very far north, perhaps not further 
than the 60th parallel of N. latitude, although breeding in 
Denmark, the Isle of Sylt, Schleswig Holstein, and the north 
of Germany and Holland. It was formerly a regular sum¬ 
mer visitant to England; but the general cultivation of waste 
lands, and the drainage of extensive pieces of water (the 
natural consequence of an increasing population and an im¬ 
proved system of agriculture), have gradually banished it from 
its former haunts. The neighbourhood of Rye, in Sussex, 
Romney Marsh, in Kent, Salthouse, in Norfolk, and Foss- 
dyke Wash and West Fen, in Lincolnshire, are upon record 
as former breeding-places ; and to these might be added Win- 
terton and Horsey in Norfolk, the neighbourhood of the 
Seven-Mile House, on the river Bure, near Yarmouth, and 
the Mere-lands at Thorpe, near Aldeburgh. In Scotland and 
Ireland the Avocet is regarded as an extremely rare bird. It 
has occurred accidentally as far north as Orkney, and as far 
to the south and west as Cork Harbour; but these must be 
considered quite exceptional instances. On the opposite 
shores of Holland, where I have had opportunities of seeing 
this singular bird alive and watching its graceful movements, 
large tracts of unreclaimed marsh and ooze still afford it a 
secure retreat, whilst the veto which is placed upon shooting 
during the nesting-season in that country enables it to rear 
its young in many places with more or less freedom from 
molestation. 
In some of the marshy plains of Southern Spain the Avocet 
