242 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



elevation I have never met with it either nesting or as a 

 migrant. 



A month after their arrival at their nesting sites the 

 Oyster Catchers commence to construct their nests. 

 Usually these consist merely of shallow depressions scraped 

 in the shingle fringing a river or hill stream, and are devoid 

 of lining or decoration of any sort. Sometimes the dried 

 droppings of rabbits are collected and are used as a floor 

 to the nest. At times, however, an Oyster Catcher, more 

 ambitious or energetic than her neighbours, gathers to- 

 gether quite a bulky collection of dead heather stems, and 

 constructs a nest in the true sense of the term. 



Flat stretches of heather-clad ground adjoining a river 

 would seem to be well liked by the Oyster Catcher as 

 nesting-grounds, but often the nest is at a considerable 

 distance from any water. Two instances came to my 

 notice recently of an Oyster Catcher choosing as a nesting 

 site a field of young oats. 



The eggs of this handsome bird usually number three. 

 They are less pyriform than is generally the case with the 

 family of waders, and are large for the size of the bird. 

 Light broAvn in their ground colour, they are spotted or 

 streaked with spots of dark grey-bro'\\Ti. The birds never 

 sit closely even when their young are on the point of 

 hatching. On the approach of danger they sometimes fly 

 straight off the nest or sometimes run as fast as they can 

 for some distance before taking wing — it depends on the 

 individual, I think. They usually leave in silence, but if 

 one remains too long at their nesting site, and the birds 

 begin to have fears lest their eggs are becoming too cold, 

 they then fly restlessly round, uttering an occasional cry. 

 But with the hatching out of their brood their anxiety 

 increases a thousandfold, and the birds fly round the 

 " danger zone " uttering shrill excited cries repeatedly ; 

 there are, in fact, few members of the bird world which 



