nest they are always placed with the large ends outwards, the pointed ends meeting close together in the centre, so as to occupy the smallest possible quantity of space. Most of this family are esteemed as food, and some are accounted a luxury.

The Curlews (Numenius) form the first genus. They are characterized by a long, slender, incurved bill; slightly compressed, and furrowed for three-fourths of its length, with a blunt tip. Tarsi slender, and naked above the

joint; wings ample.

These birds, it has already been observed, are closely allied to the genus Ibis of the preceding family. In their habits they are migratory; and during the winter season collect in flocks, and resort to low muddy shores and creeks of the sea, where they search for their food among the oozy slime, on the ebbing of the tide. They breed in the northern latitudes, and as spring comes begin their polar migration, at the same time leaving the shore and retiring inland to moors, wild morasses, mountain heaths, and barren tracts of country; they now separate into pairs, and commence the labours of incubation.

Two species are known in Europe, the Curlew (Numenius arquatus) and the Whimbrel, (Numenius phaopus, Lath.) the latter differing from the Curlew in being considerably smaller.

The CURLEW is found in most countries of Europe, and is common in the British isles, breeding in the northern mountain districts, in summer, and returning to the coast in flocks on the approach of winter. During the pairing and breeding season, the notes of the Curlew consist of loud whistling calls, wild and varied, uttered while wheeling over the outspread moorland, or circling round their nest. In the protection of their young they are bold and fearless, sweeping close round the intruder's head, and endeavouring, by various artifices, to lead him away from the place, and uttering all the time their plaintive cry, courlis, courlis, in rapid succession. When first hatched, the young are covered with thick down,

varied with brown on a yellow ground, the feathers shortly begin to develope themselves, but it is not until the sixth or seventh week that the young are able to fly, though they run about and follow the guidance of their parents as soon as hatched. Selby, noticing the habits of these birds during their winter sojourning on the coast, observes: "At this season they are remarkable for their shy and watchful character, and, unless by stratagem, can rarely be approached within gunshot. During the flowing of the tide they retire to the fields adjoining the coast, where they remain quietly until the ebb has commenced. No sooner has this taken place, than they are seen returning, to seek in the lately covered sands for a new deposit of food; and I have often observed with admiration by what wonderful instinctive feeling they became immediately acquainted with the fact; and have watched, when a certain mark on the shore has become visible, for their reappearance, without once being disappointed in the result, so well do they know their appointed times and seasons."" The Curlew is found in India; but in America its place is supplied by a species distinguished by the excessive length of the bill.

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To the Curlews succeed the Sandpipers, (Totanus,) in which we find the bill moderate, straight, and drawn out to a hard rounded tip; the tarsi long and slender; the toes three before and one behind, short, and barely touching the ground. The moult is double, a change of plumage taking place before the breeding season, but not producing that marked difference of colour which occurs in other genera. The Sandpipers migrate in flocks, and frequent the borders of lakes and rivers, and the adjoining fields; most live in inland districts, and seldom or never visit the sea; others, however, resort to the shore during their winter migrations. They do not probe the mud for their food, but search for insects, worms, and mollusca among the gravel and pebbles which strew the margins of sheets of water. Except while on their periodical journeys, they live in pairs. The species are very numerous. We may enumerate the Dusky Sandpiper,

(T. fuscus,) the Redshank, (T. calidris,) the Greenshank, (T. Glottis,) the Wood Sandpiper, (T. Glareola,) the Common Sandpiper, (T. hypoleucos,) and

many more.

The COMMON SANDPIPER is an elegant, active, lively little bird, which annually visits our rivers and lakes, appearing in April, and retiring in September to the warmer parts of the continent. Hence it is often termed the Summer Snipe. It breeds near the water, the nest being placed under a tuft of grass or rushes, and, like the lapwing, it uses a thousand artifices for the protection of its young. Its flight is rapid and graceful, and it runs along the ground with great smartness and agility. Its length is seven inches. The upper surface is of a glossy olive brown colour, with fine zigzag bars of a deeper tint; the under parts white.

Leaving the Sandpipers, the genus Recurvirostra requires attention; it is distinguished by a singularity in the form of the beak, which is not a little remarkable, and which of course modifies the habits of the species. This genus contains the Avocets, of which four species are all as yet known. The following are its chief characters: bill long, slender, flattened, thin, and bending upwards towards the tip, which is brought to a fine elastic point. Legs long and slender. Toes three before and one behind, those before being united for nearly their whole length by a scalloped membrane. Wings long and pointed.

The COMMON or SCOOPING AVOCET (Recurvirostra Avocetta) is widely spread over Europe, the adjacent parts of Asia and Africa. It is found in Siberia, is abundant on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and among the salt lakes of Tartary, and is met with in Egypt and at the Cape of Good Hope. In Europe it is very common throughout Holland, and about the mouths of most of the large rivers of other countries; and in England it breeds in the marshes of Kent, Norfolk, and the south eastern line of coast generally.

The slenderness and recurved form of the beak of the Avocet renders it an instrument by no means fitted for plunging into the mud, nor is its fine elastic point fashioned

as a feeler, like that of many of the Scolopacida; nor is it, on the other hand, adapted for picking up food among stones and gravel; it is, however, beautifully modified for the purposes to which it is applied, that is, for scooping from the surface of the soft oozy mud the minute insects and crustacea on which the bird feeds; in doing this the bird appears as if it were beating the mud with the beak, and it may be frequently observed thus engaged, wading up to its breast in pools or shallows left by the retiring tide. Though it does not swim voluntarily, the Avocet, when necessity obliges, neither wants the power of swimming nor of diving; as Wilson states in his account of the American species, which very nearly resembles our own. In its flight this bird is rapid and vigorous, from the expanse and figure of its wings.

During the summer the Avocet is scattered in pairs among the fens and saline marshes, where they select a

dry spot, in which to breed. The nest consists merely of a hollow in the sandy ground, sheltered by such plants and herbage as the spot affords; the eggs are two in number, and of a greenish white spotted with black. On the approach of winter these birds collect into small flocks, and resort to low muddy shores, near the mouths of rivers, sheltered creeks, and tracts of morass, covered and left by each flow and ebb of the sea, where they never fail to obtain a plentiful supply of food. The ocean is the storehouse of these and many others of the tribes of air; to them it is ever bountiful, it recedes and leaves a feast, and returns laden with a fresh supply, leaving it, as before, for the busy curlews, and Avocets, and tringe, which add, by their presence, interest to the flattest coast.

Wisely is it ordered by the God of providence, that, when the inland morasses are frozen up, and all supplies denied there, the unfrozen shores of our seas, our bays and creeks shall become their magazine of food.

So is it with man: seldom is one door shut, but another is opened; here he is disappointed, there an unexpected mercy surprises him; and though all around be desolate and cheerless, still each day as it comes and goes, like the tide of ocean, brings successive mercies, and successive hopes, till the frosts of winter pass, till the season of trial is over, and, to the believer in Christ, the genial hours of spring lead on to all the glories of everlasting day.

The general plumage of the Avocet is white, with the exception of the head and back of the neck, the wingcoverts and greater quill-feathers which are black; the bill is black; the legs bluish gray. Length seventeen inches and a half.

The other species are the American, or Isabella, Avocet, (R. Americana,) the Rufous-necked Avocet, of Australia, (R. rubricollis,) and the Indian Avocet, (R. orientalis,) which is almost wholly white.

The Godwits (Limosa) approach the true snipes in habits and general structure, and indeed were formerly associated with them. Two species, the BLACK-TAILED