174 
AYOCET. 
Croxby Lake, Lincolnshire, as the Lev. R. P. Alington has 
informed me, by the late Theophilus Harneis, Esq., of Thor- 
ganbv Hall. In Cornwall, two have been killed at Swanpool, 
near Falmouth, one of them in November, 1845; others 
formerly have been noticed in Gloucestershire and Shropshire. 
In Sussex, Markwick says that it was not uncommon in 
his time, 1795, on the coast in summer; and he met with 
a pair which had young, in a marsh near Rye. It also 
visited the shore at Bexhill, A. T. Dodd, Esq., of Chichester, 
saw a flock of five at Pagham Harbour, near there, and 
procured three of them. In Surrey, one at Godaiming is 
recorded. In Kent, Romney Marsh used to be a locality 
for it there; and the muddy flats at the mouth of the Thames, 
in that county, and £ over the water’ in Essex. In the 
former-named a nest of young ones was found in 1842, by 
Mr. Plomley, and two young ones procured the following 
year; one was shot at Sandwich, the 22nd. of April, 1849. 
Donovan mentions that they were formerly common in the 
Cambridgeshire Fens. In Devonshire, one was obtained near 
Plymouth, in November, 1854, as John Gatcombe, Esq. has 
been kind enough to send me word. 
In Ireland, as stated by the late William Thompson, Esq., 
of Belfast, it is a very rare visitor. 
In Scotland, it is in like manner an occasional straggler. 
In Orkney, it is stated by Edmonston to have occurred. 
The mouth of the Severn, in Gloucestershire, is given as 
another of its ‘quondam’ localities; also Shropshire, Eossdike, 
in Lincolnshire, and the Dorsetshire coast. 
It is of migratory habits, arriving in this country, that is, 
when it does arrive—for, though formerly a regular and fre¬ 
quent visitor, it is not so now—in the month of April; and 
leaving again in September. Its migration is performed 
during the night. 
It prefers muddy shores to those of a sandy or rocky kind; 
also salt marshes, to which it resorts while the tide covers 
its other feeding-grounds, but leaves again for the latter when 
it has ebbed sufficiently. The Avocet walks in an easy and 
graceful manner, and is able also to run very fast; ‘which,’ 
says Meyer, ‘it does invariably close to the water’s edge when 
pursued, standing every now and then still, raising its head 
sharply, and lowering it again, and at last, if the pursuit is 
kept up, it flies up high in the air, and leaves the neigh¬ 
bourhood. Swimming may also be ranked among its capacities, 
