Mr. H. Seebohm on the Genus Himantopus. 229 
Scolopax avocetta (Briss.), Scop. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 92 
(1769). 
Avocetta europcea, Dumont, Diet. Sc. Nat. iii. p. 339 
(1816). 
Recurvirostra sinensis, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1867, p. 401. 
Plates : Dresser, Birds of Europe, vii. pi. 534; Gould, 
Birds of Gt. Britain, iv. pi. 53. 
Habits : Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 74. 
Eggs : Seebohm, British Birds, pi. 24. figs. 2, 5. 
The Common Avocet may be distinguished by the colour 
of its forehead, crown, and hind neck, which are black in the 
adult and brown in young in first plumage. Its white inner¬ 
most secondaries when adult are also peculiar to the species. 
The increase of population and the drainage of marshes 
have restricted the breeding-places of the Avocet in Europe 
to the islands off the coast of Denmark and Holland, the 
marshes of Southern Spain, the delta of the Ehone, and the 
lagoons on the shores of the Black Sea. To Southern Scan¬ 
dinavia and the rest of Central and Southern Europe, with 
the exception above mentioned, the Avocet has become, as it 
is in our islands, only an accidental visitor; but further east 
it is more abundant, breeding in Palestine and Persia, where 
it is a resident, and in North Turkestan, the extreme south¬ 
west of Siberia, South-east Mongolia, and South Dauria, 
where it is a summer visitor, wintering in China, Formosa, 
Hainan, India, and occasionally Ceylon. It has been re¬ 
corded from the main island of Japan. In Asia Minor it is 
principally known on passage, though a few are said to 
remain during the winter; and it is said to breed throughout 
Africa in suitable localities. 
Himantopus rubricollis. 
Recurvirostra novce-hollandice, Yieillot, N. Diet. d’Hist. 
Nat. iii. p. 103 (1816). 
Recurvirostra rubricolVis, Temminck, Man. d^Orn. ii. p. 592 
(1820) ; et auctorum plurimorum. 
Avocetta novce-hollandice, Ellman, Zoologist, 1861, p. 7470* 
Plates : Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 27. 
