

354 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



Bunting, this bird is not so typical as some of our common British species. The 

 female wants the black on the head and ears of the male, but the sexes are nearly 

 similar in other respects. Too little is ascertained of the habits of this species to 

 enable us to furnish any authentic or interesting information on that head. 



Common Oystercatcher^ Hcematopus ostralegus, — Huiterier pie, Fr. — Ges- 

 chackte Austernfischer, G. Indigenous throughout Europe, frequenting low 

 muddy places near the sea-coast. This lively and somewhat singular-looking 

 bird runs, swims, and flies with equal ease and rapidity, although it seldom 

 remains long in the water. Common on the coast of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, &c> 

 and becomes gregarious in winter. '• While the female is engaged in incubation, 

 the male keeps assiduous watch, and gives notice of the approach of danger by a 

 sharp and peculiar kind of whistling cry. The young quit the nest on the day 

 of their exclusion from the egg, and are assiduously attended by the parents, 

 which continually sweep round any intruder, and assail him with loud cries 

 The young attain at an early age the adult livery, without undergoing any inter- 

 mediate gradations of plumage. The sexes are alike, and the only difference in 

 their summer and winter dress consists in the presence of a white crescent-shaped 

 mark half round the throat during the latter season/' Lays, among the shingles 

 on the sea-shore, four light olive-coloured eggs blotched with black. Feeds on 

 bivales, Crustacea, marine Worms, &c. The plate represents an adult male in 

 the summer plumage, and natural size ;. it is entirely to our liking. 



Azure Tit, Varus cyanus, — Mesange azuree, Fr.< — Lazur Meise, G. A male 

 and female are given of the natural size ; the figures are pretty enough in many 

 respects, but lack the sprightliness so universally found among the Tits. Inhabits 

 Siberia,, whence it strays into the north of Europe, and occasionally as far as 

 Germany. " Like the rest of its family it dwells in woods and forests, generally 

 in the most retired parts ; it is not so much to be wondered at,, therefore, that 

 its history is shrouded in obscurity, when we consider how little intercourse 

 naturalists have hitherto had with the remote countries which it inhabits ;," but, 

 adds Mr. Gould, " were we to judge from analogy, we might reasonably conclude 

 that its manners and disposition are in strict unison with those of its near 

 relative the Blue Tit of England." The sexes, as in the other Tits, offer no 

 difference, and the peculiar admixture of blue and white at once distinguishes 

 the species. 



Black Guillemot, Uria grijlle^ — Guillemot a-miroir-blanc, Fr. — Schwarze 

 Lumme, G. The plate contains an adult and a young bird of the natural size. 

 " The northern parts of Scotland and the Orkney and Shetland Islands form a 

 place of general rendezvous for the Black Guillemot. Although a few pairs 

 oa»sionally breed on the kle of May, in the mouth of the Frith of Forth, it is 

 evident that the high northern latitudes- form its most congenial and natural 



