698 



THE BLACK OYSTER-CATCHER. 



Now and then one will alight quite near and stand for a moment looking 

 very big and bold. Then he will draw his head in and settle his body lower 

 on the legs and sneak ott, glancing furti\-ely o\-er liis slmulder to see if his 

 movements are being shadowed. Without (|ucstion he is trying to de\-elop the 

 kind and degree of our interest. If the female was sitting ujMjn eggs she 

 slipped away too soon to be caught at home, and she spends the entire time of 



IL 



Token Oil Carroll I.slct. 



Photo by the Author. 



A NESTING SITE OF THE BEACK OYSTER-CATCHER. 



A GRASS-LINED NEST WITH TlIBEi: EGGS MAY BE DISCERNED JUST TO THE LEFT OF THE BLACK CENTER. 



our stay arranging elaborate pantomimes for our misguidance. Now she 

 bends with qih\'ering wing and di])s her head up and down, as tho inviting 

 attention to her charming nestlings. "Ar'n't they darlings.^" (She means a 

 heap of mussel shells just before her eye). Or again she settles down upon 

 a barnacle-covered rock and broods virtuously — on barnacles. 



And if by any accident one does become possessed of the real secret, it is 

 great sport to devise a stealthy return and to watch the bird steal away from 

 the eggs, slowly, painfully, in abject humiliation, hoping against hope that she 

 is eluding observation, until a safe distance is reached. When the game is "all 



