THB PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 107 



eofated. Yet the truth of these accounts is doubted by the 

 inhabitants of Egg Harbor, and other parts of our coast, 

 who positively assert, that it never haunts such places, but 

 confines itself almost solely to the sands ; and this opinion 

 I am inclined to believe correct, having myself uniformly 

 found these birds on the smooth beach bordering the oceanj 

 and on the higher, dry, and level sands, just beyond the 

 reach of the summer tides. On this last situation, where 

 the dry flats are thickly interspersed with drifted shells, I 

 hare repeatedly found their nests, between the middle and 

 25th of May. The nest itself is a slight hollow in the 

 sand, containing three eggs, somewhat less than those of a 

 hen, and nearly of the same shape, of a bluish cream-colour, 

 marked with large, roundish spots of black, and others of a 

 fainter tint. In some, the ground cream-colour is destitute 

 of the bluish tint, the blotches larger, and of a deep brown. 

 The young are hatched about the 25th of May, and some- 

 times earlier, having myself caught them running along the 

 beach about that period. They are at first covered with 

 down of a grayish colour, very much resembling that of the 

 sand, and marked with a streak of brownish black on the 

 back, rump, and neck, the breast being dusky, where, in 

 the old ones, it is black. The bill is at that age slightly 

 bent downwards at the tip, where, like most other young 

 birds, it has a hard protuberance that assists them in break 

 ing the shell ; but in a few days afterwards this falls off 

 These run along the shore with great ease and swiftness 



