Bill and feet flesh-coloured; forehead yellowish-grey, with a few dark mottlings in the centre; on the upper part of the head two broad blackish-brown transverse bands, and on the occiput two narrower, separated by bands of light red; a brownish-black loral band, and a narrow irregular line of the same across the cheek, and continued to the occiput; upper parts variegated with brownish-black, light yellowish-red, and ash-grey; inner wing-coverts and secondary quills similarly barred, the outer pale greyish-red, faintly barred with dusky; quills brown, tipped with dull grey, secondaries spotted on the outer web with dull red; upper tail-coverts barred; tail-feathers brownish-black, their tips grey, their outer edges mottled with reddish; sides of the neck grey, tinged with red; lower part in general light red, tinged with grey on the breast, on the sides and lower wing-coverts deeper; lower tail-coverts with a central dusky line, the tip white. Young with a longitudinal black band on the head. _Male_, 11, 16. _Female_, 11-7/12, 17-1/4. Distributed throughout the country. Extremely abundant in the Middle and Eastern Districts, as well as in the interior, where it breeds, as far as Nova Scotia. Equally abundant in winter in the Southern States, though many migrate southward. Scolopax minor, Gmel. Syst. Nat. v. i. p. 661. Woodcock, Scolopax minor, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. vi. p. 40. Scolopax minor, Bonap. Syn. p. 331. Lesser Woodcock, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 194. American Woodcock, Scolopax minor, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 474. GENUS VIII. RECURVIROSTRA, Linn. AVOCET.