388 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE 



a semicircular loop of black encircling the hinder end of the body. The under parts 

 are white, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles this species is resident, though 

 subject to local movements, working northward in spring and southward in autumn. 

 Its distribution in the breeding season is somewhat irregular. It is scarce and local 

 on the south and east coasts of England up to Northumberland, being entirely 

 absent from some counties and only represented by a few pairs in the rest. In 

 Scotland it becomes numerous, breeding not only on the coast and islands, but by 

 the rivers and lochs, and is also common in Ireland, especially on the islands, and 

 along the Welsh coast and the Cumbrian shore-line, while it is plentiful in the Isle 

 of Man. Outside the British Isles it nests in the Faeroes and Iceland, and along 

 the whole of the European coast-line from Archangel to W. France, including the 

 Baltic and many of the main river valleys ; also in the basins of the Black and 

 Caspian Seas, and on the coasts of Macedonia and Asia Minor. Eastward it is found 

 in the Ob and Irtysh valleys as well as Turkestan, and Popham records a pair on the 

 Yenisei. It is replaced by other races in N.E. Siberia, China, and Japan, and also 

 in Australia and America. Its winter range extends south to North-west Africa, 

 the Red Sea, Somaliland, India, and Burma, and it has been recorded from 

 Senegambia. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A resident and a winter visitor. Our own birds appear to 

 be resident within the area, but many of those in the more northerly districts move 

 southwards in winter. At that season there is large influx from the Continent of 

 birds that pass the winter on the shores of Great Britain. There is probably a 

 slight autumn immigration to Ireland from the west of Scotland, either of Scottish- 

 bred or autumn immigrant oystercatchers (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 

 1900, p. 262). A very gregarious bird at migration as at other times. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nesting-sites of this species vary according to the 

 locality. On rocky islets the eggs may be found in some cranny or nook among the 

 rocks, with practically no lining except the pebbles, bits of shells, or clump of thrift, 

 which form the bottom of the nest-hollow. (PL LHI.) The crest of a sand-dune where 

 the eggs lie half-buried in sand is a favourite site where the wind has built up a 

 barrier of dunes. On the polders of Holland the nest-site is marked by an untidy 

 gathering of drift of various kinds and droppings to line a hollow in the short grass, 

 while shingle-beds and sandbanks may also be tenanted at times, as well as the tops 

 of lofty stacks (Zoologist, 1891, p. 34, etc.). The share of the parents in providing 

 nest materials (where they are to be found) appears not to be recorded. The eggs 



