1 88 OUR RARER BIRDS 



although its wariness is never relaxed. The breeding season 

 is fast approaching, and as soon as May arrives we can search 

 for its nest with the certainty of success. Its breeding 

 grounds are on the shingly beaches, where the shore is thickly 

 strewn with round pebbles and broken shells. A favourite 

 situation is just above the line of drift in a quiet bay, where 

 the pebbles are thickly strewn with scraps of dry seaweed, 

 stranded corks broken loose from the fishing-nets, bits of 

 worm-eaten wood, broken shells, and other refuse. This line 

 of rubbish marks the limits of the high tides, and usually a 

 yard higher up the beach the Oystercatcher lays her eggs. I 

 have taken them in various other situations. Perhaps the 

 most singular of these was on the summit of a low stack of 

 rocks about fifty feet above the water. Another nest was made 

 amongst the big boulders in a little bay in the cliffs, quite in- 

 accessible to a human intruder, except by means of a boat ; 

 and I have seen many others on low rocky islands, but always 

 amongst the shingle on the shore. The Oystercatcher never 

 nests on the bare sand like the Einged Plover, but always 

 amongst the rough beach. A peculiarity about the nesting 

 economy of this bird is its making several nests before it is 

 finally satisfied. I have seen as many as six of these mock 

 nests within a few yards of the one that contained the eggs. 

 It may be that the bird moves its eggs about a good deal if 

 the water threatens to wash them away, each time making a 

 new nest for them in a place of greater safety. The Oyster- 

 catcher's nest scarcely deserves the name, and is only a hollow 

 in the shingle, where the small pebbles and bits of broken 

 shells and dry seaweed are smoothed into a bed for the eggs. 

 These are usually three in number, but sometimes four, and 

 in rarer instances only two. They are buff in ground colour, 

 blotched and streaked and spotted with blackish-brown and 

 pale gray. They vary considerably in size, shape, and mark- 

 ings. Some have more streaks on them than others, and some 



