PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 69 
Plovers differs strikingly from that of the Sand- 
pipers and Snipes, inasmuch that it tapers from the 
base to the end of the nasal groove, then swells 
towards the tip. It is utterly impossible in a 
work like the present, which only attempts a slight 
sketch of marine bird-life on British coasts, to deal 
adequately with the astonishing amount of varia- 
tion, even in this single organ of Limicoline birds. 
We will, therefore, now proceed to notice the most 
characteristic species found on the tideways of 
our islands, either as resident species, as passing 
migrants, or as winter visitors. It will, perhaps, be 
most convenient, as well as most interesting, to deal 
first with those species that are resident on our 
coasts, as being the most characteristic forms of 
this group of shore birds. 
OYSTER-CATCHER. 
During summer, this species (the Hematopus 
ostralegus of Linnzeus and other systematists) south 
of the Yorkshire and Lancashire coasts, is decidedly 
local and rare; but north of those localities it 
becomes one of the most common and characteristic 
birds of the shore, even extending to the Shetlands, 
the wildest of the Hebrides and St. Kilda. It is of 
interest to remark that in some parts of Scotland 
the Oyster-catcher drops its marine habits, and 
frequents the banks of rivers and lochs. There is, 
perhaps, no more conspicuous, no more handsome, 
no more noisy bird along the coast, than the Oyster- 
