222 THE BIRD WATCHER 
they go many togethgp Even here the sea-pie is 
wary, and in a more populous place I doubt if any- 
thing would tempt him inland. Yet it is curious that 
in an island where I have been the one inhabitant 
I have never seen these birds feeding or walking any- 
where except on the tidal shore, quite near the sea, 
though they often flew over the island, whereas here, 
in Unst, | have seen them thus searching the green- 
sward in the neighbourhood of Burra Firth, which is 
a village, though a small one. But then they are 
much more numerous here, and it was always in the 
close neighbourhood of the beach, even when not 
upon it, that I saw them. In this last instance, too, 
they were no distance at all from the sea—but again, 
most of the smooth, turfy stretches, where it would 
be easy to find worms, are so situated. Here, then, is 
another path along which differentiation might pro- 
ceed, and by which, in time, an oyster-catcher might 
become a bird with the habits of the great plover. It 
is curious that one of the cries of the latter bird in 
the spring, though very much weaker, is a good deal 
like the “ ki-vick, ki-vick, ki-vick, ki-vick, ki-vick!” 
of the sea-pie, so that the one rendering might stand 
for both. 
It is pleasarit to see a fair-sized flock of these birds 
gathered together on a smooth stretch of sand just 
above the line of the waves. Some walk about or stop 
to preen themselves, others lie all along, whilst a few 
stand motionless upon one leg, fast asleep, with the 
head turned and the red bill hidden amongst the pied 
