46 THE LIMICOLE OF THE CLYDE AREA. 
just on the shore, but frequently the nest is placed among 
grass some distance back; sometimes a depression in a 
low-lying rock is chosen. The nest is a slight hollow lined 
with a few stems and often with some shells. The number 
of eggs is usually three, but nests with four are not uncommon, 
Until the eggs are hatched the oyster-catcher when alarmed 
slips off its nest quietly and runs or flies some little distance 
away, but when the young are out the old birds are most 
vociferous, and their cries do not cease so long as the intruder 
remains within their territory. At all times a sociable bird, 
the flocks grow in size after the nesting season till, as autumn 
progresses, congregations of many hundreds may be seen at 
certain favourite feeding grounds. 
The oyster-catcher is a handsome bird, with his pied 
plumage, red legs, and loud, clear call. He loves to search 
for cockles and such fare at low tide, and when the water 
covers his feeding place he retires with his neighbours to some 
rock or field near by, there to dose till the ebbing tide 
lays bare his next meal. 
Black-winged Stilt (Zimantopus candidus, Bonnaterre)—The 
only records are one killed near Port Glasgow in 1850 (Gray, 
“ Birds of the West of Scotland,” p. 303), and another observed 
at Possil Marsh in 1867 (Gray in “Notes on the Fauna and 
Flora of the West of Scotland,” 1876, p. xiii). 
Pectoral Sandpiper (7ringa maculata, Vieillot)—One was 
obtained near Loch Lomond in November, 1882. (Saunders, 
“Manual of British Birds,” 1899, p. 579.) 
Grey Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius (L.))—There are 
only a few records of storm-driven birds obtained in early 
winter in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire. 
*Woodcock (Scolopax rusticula L.)—Common in certain 
districts of the area at all seasons, shunning heavy, clayey 
soils, where a few occur in winter. It is a bird that the 
ordinary observer seldom sees, but in localities where it breeds 
it may be observed, in the twilight of the summer evenings, 
flying over the tree-tops or the bracken-clad hillsides, emitting 
its short, high-pitched whistle, followed immediately by its 
frog-like croak. It seems to me that when it is emitting the 
guttural note the wings labour more than at other times, as 
if the bird were marking time to its croaking. Nesting usually 
begins with the month of April, and fresh eggs have been 
