or little-known Limicolse. 
251 
frequenting the edges of tanks and rivers, generally in small 
flocks/"* To this statement, however, exception is taken by 
Col. Tiekell, who says that, as far as his experience goes, the 
Avocet is a an exceedingly rare bird in India,”' He adds, 
“ though I have pretty generally explored the Ganges be¬ 
tween Sootee and Patna, the Gun duck and Bishennuddee in 
Tirhoot, the Bhagiruttee in Bengal, and the Mahanuddee in 
Malda, the Koel, Damoodur, Kasaie, and Soobunrekha, in the 
wilder tracts of Chota, Nagpoor, and Orissa, never have I met 
with this bird except in the tideway of the Hooghly below 
Calcutta, or in the mouths of the Roopnarain, near the sea, 
and never in any inland jheel, lake, or marsh/'* This last 
remark reads strangely; for Mr. Hume, writing on the orni¬ 
thology of Sindh ( ( Stray Feathers/ i. p. 248), states that it 
is there very common about the larger inland lakes; and at 
the Muncher Lake especially, he noticed it in large parties, 
“ certainly a hundred in a single flock/'* Mr. R. M. Adam, 
too, shot several specimens in March and April at the Sam- 
bhur Lake, in Central India / Stray Feathers/ i. p. 397). 
Hodgson found it in Nepal. Pere David, Mr. Swinhoe, Mr. 
Reeves, and others have observed the Avocet in China and 
Formosa; and Mr. Swinhoe regards it as a winter visitant to 
South China (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 311). It is included in Mr. 
HoldswortlFs “ Catalogue of the Birds of Ceylon ** (P. Z. S. 
1872, p. 475) on the authority of Mr. Layard, who, some 
years since, noted the occurrence of two specimens at Jaffna 
(Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. vol. xiv. p. 265, 1854). 
As regards Recurvirostra leucocephala of Yieillot (Nouv. 
Diet. d’Hist. Nat. iii. p. 103, and Gal. Ois. iii. p. 181, pi. 272), 
I have seen the type specimen in the Paris Museum, and can 
state that it is not an Avocet at all, but a young bird, with a 
broken bill, of the Australian Banded Stilt, Cladorhynchus 
pectoralis (Du Bus). It is easy to see how the mistake arose. 
Had the bill been perfect, Yieillot would have seen that it 
was not recurved; but having only the basal half before him, 
and, no doubt, observing the extreme vertical compression of 
the mandibles, erroneously assigned it a place among the true 
Avocets. The foot of Cladorhynchus is very small compared 
