544 OYSTER-CATCHER. 



iMediterranean basin, however, it is principally a migrant ; but it 

 occurs on many of the inland waters of the Continent, and along 

 the large rivers of Russia, as well as on the northern shores of the 

 Black and Caspian Seas, whence it retreats in winter. The Arctic 

 circle forms the northern limit of its range in Asia during the 

 summer, a questionably distinct form being found in Eastern 

 Siberia, Japan and China ; but our bird visits Burma, Ceylon, 

 India, Baluchistan and Persia during cold weather, its migrations 

 extending down the Red Sea to Mozambique on the east side of 

 x'Vfrica, and to Senegambia on the west. Its representative in the 

 southern half of that continent is, however, H. capensis, a black 

 species which wanders northward to the Canaries. There are several 

 other members of this cosmopolitan genus, three or four of them 

 being confined to America. 



The eggs, usually 3 but sometimes 4 in number, are yellowish 

 stone-colour, spotted and scrolled with ash-grey and dark brown : 

 average measurements 22 by i"5 in. They are commonly laid on 

 shingle or among sand-hills, and frequently on a pavement of small 

 fragments of shells or on a tussock of sea-pink growing upon a 

 narrow ledge of rock ; but I have seen them on the summit of a 

 lofty ' stack,' and in the previously robbed nest of a Herring-Gull, 

 while they have been found in meadows far from the sea, and Prof. 

 Collett mentions a clutch laid in a cavity at the top of a felled 

 pine. Incubation becomes general in the latter part of May, and 

 lasts about three weeks. On rocky coasts each pair inhabits a 

 certain district, but on flat shores considerable numbers may be 

 found associated, and their noise is perfectly deafening when the 

 young are just hatched, the old birds flying close round the head 

 of an intruder, except where they have been much disturbed. At 

 other times the Oyster-catcher is remarkably wary, and alarms every 

 other bird in the neighbourhood with its shrill keep, keep. It swims 

 well and sometimes takes to the water of its own accord. Mussels, 

 whelks, and limpets are neatly scooped from their shells by the 

 bird's powerful bill ; annelids, crustaceans, small fish and marine 

 plants being also eaten. 



The arrangement of the black-and-white plumage of the adult is 

 shown in the engraving ; bill orange-yellow ; irides crimson ; legs 

 and toes livid flesh-colour. Whole length 16-5 in.; wing 975 in. 

 From autumn to spring the front and sides of the neck are white, 

 and the bill is horn-coloured tov/ards the tip. The young have the 

 feathers of the back and wings margined with brown. 



