The American Avocet 
1910, p. 19 (distr. and migr ,);Lamb and Howell, Condor, vol. xv., 1913, p. 117 (Buena 
Vista Lake, breeding); Tyler, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 9, 1913, p. 24 (San Joaquin 
Valley, habits, etc.). 
ODDITY in a bird makes both for distinction and extinction. Every¬ 
body lias seen pictures of the Avocet, with its curiously upturned beak and 
its long blue legs; and almost everybody has received the impression that 
it is one of the doomed races, a marvel of the elder time. While it is true 
that the bird is no longer to be found east of the Mississippi River; and 
that the species as a whole has been reduced to perhaps one-tenth of its 
former numbers; it has, nevertheless, been fortunate in finding extensive 
asylum in the central valleys of California; and here it may be studied 
today as of yore, to every advantage. 
Taken in Merced County 
Photo by the Author 
A DECORATED MIRROR FOR MILADY AVOCET 
1193 
