The avocet family is increasing rapidly. 
wary and flew away at our approach, as did 
some of the others when we came up near 
them. Not so the avocets. Some of them 
were running along the shore ahead of us, 
limping badly, toppling over to one side 
with outstretched wings, as though drawn 
over with sciatic rheumatism. According 
to the few available accounts of their 
breeding habits, the eggs are laid on the 
open beach, and, as there were evidently 
none, we assumed that they were about to 
lay and were perturbed simply at our in- 
trusion into their chosen haunts. But a 
subsequent visit showed that they had even 
then had eggs back some rods from the 
shore on the white alkaline crust, amid 
sparse grass. The nests were frail little 
rims of dry grass, and each contained four 
pointed, heavily marked eggs. They were 
not in acompact colony, but were scattered 
about, some yards or rods apart. 
When I sat down near the shore and kept 
still, the avocets ceased their odd maneu- 
vers and waded about before me, feeding. 
They are sixteen or seventeen inches in 
length, with legs about six inches up to the 
feathers. They would wade out till the 
water came up to their breasts, and then 
take to swimming with lightness and grace, 
674 
their feet being partly webbed. When 
wading and feeding they would immerse 
their long bills up to the nostrils and run 
them dextrously through the soft mud in 
search of their minute prey. 
On subsequent visits I could tell when 
the young had begun to hatch by the ac- 
tions of some of the birds. Instead of their 
former tolerance or mild remonstrance, they 
became perfectly furious. Screaming and 
yelping, a bird would fly wildly about and 
then dash like lightning at my head, swery- 
ing off just beyond arms’ reach. Presently 
it would alight on the shore, run along 
vociferating, and then make a renewed at- 
tack. The young are curious, nimble little 
striped fellows, and hide as soon as the 
parents begin to scream. So closely do 
their colors and markings harmonize with 
the dry grass and alkaline deposit that it is 
very hard to discover them, as it is, indeed, 
the young of all these shore-birds. 
At a certain ranch the cowboys told me 
of a series of smail muddy sloughs where 
these “‘yellow-necked snipe” made a tre- 
mendous ado whenever they passed, so one 
day I drove over there to investigate. The 
domains of two ranches adjoined at that 
point between two of the ponds, and were 
