88 
The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 
TURNSTONE, Strepsilas interpres.—An autumn visitor to the coast ; 
rather rare. Sir Hugh Owen has shot the Turnstone on the 
sands at Goodwick. We have heard of others at Angle and 
Tenby, all immature birds in their first plumage. We have no 
record of one obtained in the spring in the beautiful nesting 
dress. Mr. Tracy considered this species scarce, and stated 
that only an occasional one was to be met with in the autumn, 
and mostly the young of the year. In August, 1892, several 
Turnstones were shot near Tenby, where Mr. C. Jefferys 
informs us that they are rare. 
OYSTER-CATCHER, Hematopus ostralegus.— Resident. The 
Oyster-catcher occurs in small numbers at various places on the 
coast, and nests on the Bishop’s Rock, also on Skomer, where we 
found pairs of old birds and their newly-hatched young on the 
last day of May, 1886. In their handsome plumage of vividly- 
contrasted black and white the old birds, as they flew anxiously 
low overhead against the blue sky, were beautiful objects. Mr. 
Tracy states that, on several occasions, he took the eggs of the 
Oyster-catcher on a small island at the entrance of Milford 
Haven, and Sir Hugh Owen has shot the bird on the sands at 
Goodwick. The plaintive whistle of the Oyster-catcher, or Sea 
Pie (to give it its commoner name), is one of the characteristic 
bird-notes of the pebbly beaches around our coasts. We have 
not often met with the bird on a sandy shore. 
AVOCET, Recurvirostra avocetta.—A rare accidental visitor. The 
singular and graceful Avocet, once a regular summer visitor in 
considerable numbers to the fen-lands of the eastern counties of 
England, is now only a chance visitor to our shores, and is very 
rarely observed in the south-western parts of the kingdom. 
When it now appears it is generally in the winter time. Mr. 
Tracy states that he received two to stuff that had been killed 
in the neighbourhood of Pembroke in the winter, but does not 
give the dates. One of them is, doubtless, the beautiful speci- 
