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PLOVERS AND SANDPIPERS. 71 
careers about the air overhead, anxious for the 
safety of its eggs or young. This note cannot 
readily be confused with that of any other bird 
upon the coast. It may best be described as a loud 
shrill heep-heep-heep. The food of the Oyster- 
catcher is composed of mussels, whelks, limpets, 
crustaceans, and small fish, together with various 
tender buds and shoots of marine plants. Its 
chisel-shaped bill enables it readily to detach limpets 
from the rocks, or force open the closed valves of 
the mussel or the cockle. Oyster-catchers often 
frequent certain spots on the coast to feed, visiting 
them as soon as the tide admits, with great regu- 
larity. It may here be remarked that this bird 
wades often through the shallows, but never swims, 
as far as I know, unless wounded. 
The eggs of the Oyster-catcher are laid in May 
or June, in the north a little later than in the south. 
The nesting-place is usually a stretch of rough 
pebbles or a shingly beach in some quiet bay, a 
low rocky island, or even a stack of rocks. 
Although Oyster-catchers cannot be said to breed 
in colonies, like some of the Gulls and Terns, 
numbers of nests may be found at no great distance 
apart. The nest is simple in the extreme—a mere 
hollow, in and round which are neatly arranged flat 
pebbles and bits of broken shells. As a rule, 
several mock nests may be found near to the 
one containing the eggs. These eggs are usually 
three in number, but sometimes four, pale buff or 
