176 
AYOCET. 
in a marsh, or on a bank, just above bigb-water mark, 
among the short grass, or other marine vegetation. It is 
lined with a little of those materials. The eggs are described 
as being usually two, but sometimes three or four in 
number, brown or greenish white, spotted and speckled with 
black. The young are hatched in eighteen days, and leave 
the nest almost immediately. If chased, they hide themselves, 
with much success, among the scanty cover. 
Male; weight, from twelve to fourteen ounces; the usual 
weight is thirteen; length, nearly one foot six inches. The 
bill of this elegant bird, at once its ‘decus et tutamen,’ is 
adapted by the all-wise Providence of God, for the prosecution 
of the individual instinct with which He has endowed it; it 
is about three inches and a half in length, and black in 
colour, and curved upwards, and somewhat flexible; iris, deep 
reddish brown; over it there are sometimes a few white 
feathers in a line, and sometimes there is a little white on 
the forehead. Head on the crown, neck on the back, and 
nape, black; chin, throat, and breast, white; back on the 
upper part, black; on the lower, white. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest, when 
closed they reach rather beyond the end of the tail, and 
when extended measure two feet and a half across; lesser 
wing coverts, black; primaries, black. Legs, long, stout, and 
delicate pale blue, or blue grey; the toes are of the same 
colour; they are semipalmated, that is, the three front ones; 
the hind one is only rudimentary. The whole plumage is 
smooth and compact. 
The female is about one foot five inches in length. In 
other respects she is like the male. 
In the young of the year, the bill is dusky; iris, dusky; 
the black parts of the plumage are tinged with brown, and 
during the second year, till the autumnal moult, some of 
the feathers are still reddish brown at the end. 
The quantity and distribution of the black colour in the 
Avocet varies in different specimens. 
