OYSTERCATCHER. 263 



and rock-stacks. The flocks begin to disband in early 

 spring, and to disperse to the breeding-places. We can 

 scarcely regard the Oystercatcher as gregarious in 

 summer, but it is certainly sociable, and numbers of 

 nests may be found at no great distance apart ; never- 

 theless each pair of birds keep a good deal to them- 

 selves and to a chosen haunt until the young can fly. I 

 have taken several nests within a few hundred yards, 

 and seen as many as a dozen birds in the air together 

 screaming above their breeding-grounds. The nest of 

 this species scarcely deserves the name. It is little 

 more than a hollow in the shingle, in which the bits of 

 broken shells and pebbles are somewhat neatly arranged. 

 Frequently the eggs are laid on a drift of sea-weed or 

 other ocean refuse. Curious sites are sometimes selected. 

 I have taken the eggs from lofty rock-stacks, and amongst 

 boulders in a little cove, whilst they have been discovered 

 in the deserted nest of a Herring Gull. Usually several 

 mock nests may be found quite close to the one contain- 

 ing the eggs, as if the birds had made several before 

 they were satisfied. The bird sits very lightly, generally 

 rising from the eggs as soon as an intruder is detected, 

 and flying wildly about, uttering their shrill, clear notes. 

 The eggs resemble the surroundings so closely that they 

 are usually found with difficulty, and only after careful 

 search amongst the rougher shingle. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement: 

 The eggs of the Oystercatcher are usually three, some- 

 times four, and less frequently only two in number. 

 They are pale- or brownish-bufl" in ground colour, 

 blotched, spotted, and streaked with blackish-brown, and 

 with underlying markings of gray. On some varieties 

 the markings are very streaky ; on others they take the 

 form of well-defined spots and small, irregular blotches, 

 either uniformly distributed over the entire surface, or 



