The SCOOPING AVOCETS (_Recurvirostræ_) are recognisable by their powerful body, moderately long, thin neck, large head, and long slender beak, grooved on its sides to the middle, and compressed towards its acute tip, which is curved either upwards or downwards. The margins are sharp and entire, the bill hard and smooth. The long slender tarsi are covered with scales; and the very long powerful foot furnished with four toes; the latter are sometimes united by a web in front, the hind toe being either extremely short or undeveloped. The long, pointed wings have the first quill longer than the rest. The short rounded tail is composed of twelve feathers. The plumage of the back is close and compact, and that of the under side of downy texture. These birds inhabit most countries of our globe, and frequent the swampy margins of rivers, or salt marshes, where they are usually seen in pools of shallow water, fluttering their wings, and shaking their half-bent legs, an action which causes them to appear as if they would tumble over, while at the same time they utter a sharp note like the syllable "click" often repeated. Occasionally they are seen collected in small groups, on open downs covered with grasses and other kinds of vegetation, when, if alarmed, they frequently run off in a straight line, or fly very close to the ground. Their mode of feeding is by scooping, or as it were beating the soft soil with their flat upturned bill; and when thus engaged they are generally seen wading up to their breasts in the pools left by the receding tide. They never swim voluntarily, although furnished with feet so extensively palmated as to have induced the early systematists to place them among the swimming birds; nevertheless, this structure is an admirable provision to enable them to traverse the soft and yielding mud in which they find their food. The nest is generally formed of dry grasses, seaweeds, and small twigs, heaped up to the thickness of several inches, and placed among thick tufts of grass, in the neighbourhood of shallow water. The eggs are four in number. THE SCOOPING AVOCET.