THE BLACK OYSTER-CATCHER. 



701 



eggs may be lodged on the very crest of the islet. Again, upon Destruction 

 Island, we found eggs on a coarse beach graxel, where to the protection of 

 color, stone-gray with black spots and blotches, was added the almost perfect 

 assimilation of form to that of the rounded pebbles. 



Owing to the exposed situations chosen, as well as to the uncompromising 

 prominence of the bird, the eggs of this Oyster-catcher are favorite proxender 

 for the Raven (Corpus corax pr'uicipalis ) . P'rom this cause alone I should 

 judge that not over half the eggs laid upon the 01\nipiades e\er hatch. 



A young Oyster-catcher is a master at freezing, and his case is helped 

 somewhat by rusty feather-edgings, which enable him tu l:)lend witli the sur- 

 roundings. When warned, he flattens to the rock with outstretched neck and 

 bill, and nothing but the ])arental permission or the hand of the disci:)\'erer will 

 absolve him from 

 his fakir vow. 

 That the appear- 

 ance of the fledg- 

 ling is not de- 

 void of interest 

 is testified by L. 

 M. Turner, who 

 savs in his "Con- 

 tributions to the 

 Natural History 

 of Alaska": "I 

 once procured a 

 less than half- 

 grown bird of 

 this species, and 

 if any one would 

 like to have one 

 it can be gotten 

 up in the follow- 

 ing m a n n e r : 

 Take the hinder 

 half of a black 

 kitten, dip about 

 four inches of 

 its tail in red 

 paint, then fasten 

 to the legs a piece 

 of tallow candle 

 about four inches 



Taken on the Grentille Arch. 



h'i\L'to by tile Author. 



YOUNG OYSTER-CATCHER HIDIXG. 



