confirmed, and the light-coloured margins of thé' greater
wing-coverts, ,and: the tertials especially,, are varied with dark
spots» The more uniform ash grey is the plumage ©fwinteif
the well-defined dark lines and • spots- assumed in summer, are
not produced by any partial moulting, or the . production of
new feathers, but .by an alteration; in the colour oftitlie old
feather. , j|
The whole length of the adult Greénshank is about-twelve
inches; from the carpal joint to -the end of the wing, seven
inches the first quill-feather the longest.
The representation below is from the skeleton of the Common
Sandpiper, and, exhibits the form of the breast .bone-in
the species of the genus Totanus.
T H E AVOCET.
Sfebiifvir'ostPa avosetta, -The AröseP,
avocetta Scooping, ,
The „
Avocette à nuque noir.,
P enn. Brit.^Obf..vol. ii. pV 143.
M ont. Ornith. Diet.
B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 124.
F lem. Brit. An. p. 101.
Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 90.
Jenyn3, Brit. Vert. p. 201»
G ould, Birds o f Europe, p t. iv.
T emm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. ii. p . 590.
R e c u r v i k o s t r a . Generic Characters.—Beak very long, slender, weak, depressed
throughout its whole length, flexible, pointed and curving upwards;
the upper mandible grooved along the upper surface ; under mandible grooved
along the side. Nostrils on the upper surface of the beak, near its base, linear,