OF THE AVOSET.

BILL long, slender, very thin, depressed, and bending considerably upwards: nostrils narrow and pervious: tongue short legs very long: feet palmated; the webs deeply indented from the nails towards their middle; back toe placed high, and very small.

The Avoset is migratory, and is met with in temperate climates, on the shores in various parts of Europe.

SCOOPER, CROOKED-BILL, OR YELPER.
(Recurvirostra Avosetta, Lin.-L'Avocette, Buff.)

THIS bird, which is the only British species of Avoset, does not much exceed the Lapwing in the bulk of its body; but, from the length of its legs, it is much taller.

It measures about eighteen inches in length, to the end of the toes twenty-two, and from tip to tip thirty, and weighs from twelve to fourteen ounces. The bill is black, about three inches and a half long, and of a singular conformation, looking not unlike flexible flat pieces of whalebone, curved upwards to the tip: the irides are hazel: the head round, black on the upper part to below the nape of the neck: above and beneath each eye, in most specimens, there are small white spots; but in the one from which the above figure was taken, a streak of that colour passed over each eye towards the hinder part

of the head. The thighs are naked, and, as well as the legs and feet, are of a fine pale blue colour. The whole plumage of the Avoset is white, intersected with black; and, like most of the variegated or pyebald birds, the patches of these colours are not placed exactly the same in every individual; therefore, as the bird cannot be mistaken, a more minute description is unnecessary.

These birds are common in the winter about the lakes, mouths of rivers, and marshes, in the southern parts of England; and they assemble in large flocks on the fens, in the breeding season. When the female is frightened off her nest, she counterfeits lameness; and when a flock is disturbed, they fly with their necks stretched out, and their legs extended behind, over the head of the spectator, much in the same way as the Peewit or Lapwing, making a shrill noise, and uttering a yelping cry of twit, twit, all the time. The places where they have been feeding may be traced out by the semicircular marks left in the mud or sand by their bills in scooping out their food, which consists of spawn, worms, insects, &c. Latham says, "they lay two eggs, the size of those of a Pigeon, an inch and three quarters in length, of a cinereous grey, singularly marked with deep brownish dark patches, of irregular sizes and shapes, besides some under markings of a dusky hue." They keep near the shore, wading about, up to the belly in the water, and sometimes swimming. In all their motions they are smart, lively, and volatile, and do not remain long stationary in one spot.

OF THE AUK, OR PENGUIN.

BILL strong, thick, convex, compressed on the sides: nostrils linear, placed parallel to the edge of the bill: tongue almost as long as the bill: toes, three in number, all placed forwards.

NORTHERN PENGUIN, OR GAIR-FOWL.

(Alca impennis, Lin.-Le Grand Pingoin, Buff.)

THE length of this bird, to the end of the toes, is three feet. The bill is black, and four inches and a quarter long; both mandibles are crossed obliquely with several ridges and furrows, which meet at the edges. Two ovalshaped white spots occupy nearly the whole space between the bill and the eyes: the head, back part of the neck, and all the upper parts of the body and wings are covered with short, soft, glossy black feathers, excepting a white stroke across the wings, formed by the tips of the lesser