272 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



the Oyster-catchers are seen flying on ahead as 

 one advances, and then returning in a circuit, it 

 is likely that there are eggs or young not far off. 

 The eggs are hard to find, thougli they He right 

 out in the open, on the highest and driest part of 





>rv>wv:-;^ 



Photo by H. K. Job Courtesy of Houghton MifEiin Co. 



OYSTER-CATCHER 



On nest. South Carolina 



the bar, often among shells and bunches of 

 drifted sea-weed, with which they aptly blend. 

 The young are even harder to discover, unless 

 they are seen to run. I have searched a bar, as 

 it were, with a fine-tooth comb before detecting 



the little creatures — exactly the color of the 

 sand — lying outstretched by some weed or bit of 

 debris. 



One very absorbing experience which I have 

 had was in photographing an Oyster-catcher at 

 her nest. The open sand-flat aft'orded no possible 

 concealment. At night I placed a bunch of sea- 

 weed near the two eggs. In the morning I set 

 the camera under this, and, attaching a spool of 

 strong thread to the shutter, had my friends 

 bury me in the sand, at the thread's end, all but 

 head and arm. When the rest of the party left 

 the island, the birds walked right past me, gazing 

 without fear at the apparently disconnected head 

 cast up by the waves. Soon the female was 

 shielding her eggs from the blazing Carolina sun. 

 Then excitedly I pulled the thread and the picture 

 was mine ! Herbert K. Job. 



The Black, or Bachman's, Oyster-catcher 

 (Hariiiatopiis bachmani) is peculiar to the Pacific 

 coast of North America, breeding from Prince 

 William Sound, Alaska, west through the Aleu- 

 tian Islands and south to central Lower Cali- 

 fornia, and wintering from southern British 

 Columbia to Lower California. It averages about 

 two inches shorter than its eastern congener. Its 

 head and neck are dull bluish-black, and the rest 

 of its plumage brownish-black. In habits it, 

 also, is strictly a shore-bird. 



Photo by Clyde Fisher 



Courtesy of Kat. A^.j, .\iv\. ^juc. 



ON ORANGE LAKE 



The Island, here shown, was purchased by the National Association of Audubon Societies for 



a bird reservation 



