AVOCET. AGL 
and tips of the tail feathers white; bill black; feet orange; length, 8-9 inches; wing, 
54-6; tail, 24; bill, 4, almost recurved; tarsus, 1; tibie bare but a little way. 
Habitat, sea coasts of nearly all countries. Less frequent in the interior. 
Not common migrant on the’shores of Lake rie; rare in other portions 
of the State. 
The Turnstone, of which Audubon in 1838, said, ‘‘never in the in- 
terior,” was the same year, stated to visit the shores of Lake Erie by Dr. 
Kirtland. It has been occasionally taken in the vicinity of Cleveland, by 
Mr. Winslow and others. Judge Potter, of Toledo, informs me that a 
considerable flock appeared, several year since, in the vicinity of that 
city, several being secured by a sportsman, most of which were pre- 
served by him. Mr. Langdon gives it in his list, it having been identi- 
fied by Dr. Haymond, in Indiana, near Cincinnati. I have never seen 
it alive, or from this vicinity. | 
The Turnstone is not known to breed within the limits of the United 
States, at least inthe interior. Mr. Sinnett, observed them on the coast 
of Texas in the breeding season, and believes them to breed there. The 
egos are described as of an olive-green ground-color, with brown spots. 
1 AN TMC IE ID) YZ BS (CY LOI TRS WY IER OS) ANS ICID) va dhe STILTS AND 
AVOCETS. 
Legs extremely long; the tarsus equalling or exceeding the tail, and feet either four- 
toed and palmate (Lecurvirostra) or three-toed and semipalmate (Himantopus); with 
the bill much longer than than the head, very slender, acute, and curved upward. 
GENUS RECURVIROSTRA. Linneus, 
Toes 4, fall webbed; bill decidedly recurved, flattened, tapering to a very sharp 
point; body depressed, plumage underneath thickened as in water birds. 
RECURVIROSTRA AMERICANA Gm. 
Avocet. 
Recurvirosira americana, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Sury., 1837, 166, 185.—WHxaton, Ohio 
Agric. Rep. for 1860, 368, 377; Reprint, 1861, 10,19; Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. 
Rep. for 1874, 572; Reprint, 1875, 12.—LanGpon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 14; Re-. 
vised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 182; Reprint, 16. 
Kecurvirostra americana, GMELIN, Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 693. 
White; back and wings with much black; head and neck cinnamon-brown in the 
adult, ashy in the young; bill black, 32 to gape; legs blue; eyes red. Length, 16-18; 
wing, 7-8; tail, 34; tarsus, 34. 
“The young Avocet has the head and neck white, with an ashy or plumbeous shade, 
instead of chestnut or cinnamon-red. In this condition it constitutes the R. occidentalis 
of authors. Of the adult, the bill is black ; the iris, bright red ; the legs and feet clear, 
ay 
