434 CHARADKIID.E. 



recorded to have been shot at Godahiiing, which is many 

 miles from the sea ; I have known this bird killed as high up 

 the Thames as Oatlands, which is at least fifty miles from the 

 mouth of the river. Dr. Fleming says, " Though usually 

 considered as a shore bird, I have observed it breeding on the 

 islands in the Tummcl, at Moulincarn, between Dunkeld and 

 Blair Athol." A correspondent in the Magazine of Natural 

 History, vol. vi. p. 151, in reference to this subject, says, 

 " During summer some may be always seen along the Don, 

 from twenty-five to thirty miles from the sea ; and I have 

 been told that they breed about Kildrummy, a few miles 

 higher up." Thomas M. Grant, Esq. of Edinburgh, also 

 writes to me as follows : — " In our north-eastern counties the 

 Oyster-catchers migrate into the interior every summer, and 

 hatch their young on the dry gravel beaches wdiich skirt the 

 rivers, or on small islands of the same description. At 

 Ballindalloch, the scene of my observations, they are very 

 ' numerous, and it is in a Highland district at least twenty 

 miles from the sea. They arrive there from the first to the 

 fifteenth of February, lay their eggs in April, making Avhat 

 can scarcely be called a nest, as it is a mere hollow scratched 

 in the gravel, and the birds take their departure about the 

 middle of August, a few perhaps lingering as late as the 

 latter end of that month. When Sea-pies appear in the 

 interior at an early period of the year, the first of February is 

 considered unusually soon, the peasants expect that the spring 

 will be mild and favourable. The food of these birds, while 

 at this breeding-ground, consists of worms, which they collect 

 in the grass-fields and pastures : the dexterity with wliich they 

 manage to draw out a very long one without breaking it has 

 often amused me much." 



I have been favoured by James Harley, Esq. of Leicester, 

 with the following extract from his unpviblished Catalogue of 

 the Grallatorial Birds of Leicestershire and the Midland 



