310 BULLETIN 14 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



It Avas much commoner in those days, of course, and enjoyed a much 

 wider distribution. Audubon (1840) records it at Portland, Me., 

 and as breeding on the south coast of the Labrador Peninsula; it 

 seems as if he must be mistaken about the latter locality, although it 

 is interesting to note that the European oyster catcher breeds as 

 far north as Russian Lapland. 



The oyster catcher prefers the same broad, sandy beaches as the 

 Wilson plover and the least tern select for their breeding grounds; 

 and at other seasons it frequents similar resorts with all the little 

 sand plovers and beach birds. The small plovers are protectively 

 colored, but the oyster catcher is not only big, but is most con- 

 spicuously colored. Perhaps it needs no protection against the 

 ordinary foes of the little fellows; and evidently its wits are sufficient 

 protection against larger enemies. But in spite of the fact that it 

 is well able to take care of itself, its range has been greatly restricted 

 and its numbers very much reduced during the past 50 years. It 

 formerly bred abundantly on Cobb Island, Virginia, but when we 

 were there in 1907 we saw very few and found no nests or young. 



H. H. Bailey (1913) says: 



This large, showy bird fell an easy mark to the spring gunners, breeding 

 as it did during the height of the spring migration of " beach birds," from 

 May 10 to 25. Nesting among the sand dunes or flat beaches back from the 

 ocean, over which the spring gunners tramped daily, these birds were right 

 in the line of travel, so to speak, and were either killed or their nests broken up. 



Recent records from South Carolina, where we found it common in 

 1915, seem to indicate that it is becoming rarer even there. And 

 during the whole winter of 1924 and 1925, spent on the west coast 

 of Florida, I saw only one. 



Nesting. — While visiting Arthur T. Wayne on the coast of South 

 Carolina, we found three nests of three eggs each of the oyster 

 catcher on May 22 and 23, 1915. The first two nests were on the 

 broad, sandy beaches of Bull's Island among numerous scattered bits 

 of shells and pebbles. The other was on Vessel Reef in Bull's Bay, a 

 low, flat, sand reef, with small areas of marsh grass in which willets 

 were nesting. The oyster catchers' nests were all on the higher parts 

 of the dry, flat, sand beaches, well above high-water mark; they 

 were mere hollows in the sand, entirely without lining, on little 

 mounds of sand or elevations, where the birds could have a good out- 

 look; usually a regular pathway of footprints in the sand led up 

 to the nest. The birds were never seen on or near the nests, but 

 were flying about in the distance making a great outcr3^ The nests 

 were easily found by following the tracks and looking for the little 

 elevations. Several pairs of Wilson plover were nesting near them. 



