File:Bird-lore (1916) (14755100542).jpg

Identifier: birdlore18nati (find matches)
Title: Bird-lore
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals
Subjects: Birds -- Periodicals Birds -- Conservation Periodicals
Publisher: New York, National Association of Audubon Societies
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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size has made it a coveted target for the gunners eversince the time when white hunters in America first began to go afield. From the point of its bill to the end of its tail the Avocet measures i6 to18 inches, and when the wings are spread the distance from tip to tip is fully20 inches. The long, upward-curving bill is a form extremely unusual amongbirds; and the partly webbed feet enable it to swim with ease when, in search-ing for its food, it advances into water where the bottom is beyond the reachof its long legs. The color of its feet and legs explains the name Blue Shanksby which it is known to many sportsmen. While searching for wild Ducks nests in the marshes of the Klamath River,in southern Oregon, in company with William L. Finley and R. Bruce Hors-fall, we came upon several groups of these magnificent birds. In every casethey were probably nesting in the neighborhood, for by their actions theyplainly expressed their displeasure at our approach. At first two or three (342^
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M ijr«/f£ HOn^F/Ki )^ AVOCET Order—Li M ICO L,cGenus—Recurvi ROSTRA Family—Recurvirostrid/E Species—AMERICANA National Association of Audubon Societies The Avocet 343 would be seen, but their cries soon brought others—perhaps their mates—who left their nests to come and help expel the intruders. With shouts ofdistress they circled us, or flew about in the air overhead, and occasionallywould alight and go bumping along the ground as though injured and under-going the most frightful suffering. Sometimes they would settle in the water,where their antics of head-bobbing and wing-waving were most amusing.Again they would submerge the body, and, with the head laid out on the sur-face, would propel themselves forward much as wounded Wild Geese willsometimes do. It was not given to us to find their nests that day nor the next, but shortlyafterward several were discovered by Mr. Finley in this neighborhood. The nest of the Avocet is merely a slight depression in the marsh lined w

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