394 OYSTERCATCHER AND TURNSTONE 



nesting together on certain very extensive sea-beaches, that the 

 species may almost be said to be gregarious. They are said to be 

 especially numerous on some of the Shetland Islands, and " when the 

 young are just hatched the chatter of the thirty or forty pairs of birds 

 forming a colony" is described " as perfectly deafening." l 



When the eggs are laid on sand or shingle a slight depression is 

 made, and sometimes a little coarse grass is introduced by way of 

 lining, but as a rule the oystercatcher likes best to pave its nest with 

 shells and stones. On the Fame Islands I have seen nests on sand 

 containing quite a collection of broken shells, and there were also 

 shell nests on masses of seaweed among large water-worn boulders 

 of rock. 



In the case of those I saw on rocky islands in the west of 

 Scotland, the eggs were often on shelves of rock, and also in hollows 

 scraped in fine turf. Both forms contained shells and stones, those 

 on the rocks just a few pieces of shell and a stone or two, but those in 

 turf were quite substantially paved. In some cases nests especially 

 if among broken rocks and stones are neatly paved with a large 

 quantity of small stones, about the size of peas. There is on the 

 whole less variation in nest material than in actual habitat. Although 

 on river beaches the nest is sometimes on bare sand or gravel, those 

 parts are more often chosen where a scanty vegetation of short grass 

 and stunted heather is scattered among large stones and rock 

 boulders. Often a promising-looking shingle-bed is neglected in 

 favour of short grass turf, ornamented with patches of the bright- 

 coloured flowers of the sea-pink. Less often nests may be found 

 on bare mud. Quite unexpected sites are frequently chosen. One 

 nest was found on top of a ploughed hill, 2 another loosely made 

 of heather twigs was found in a tussock of grass in a field. 3 A 

 cavity on the top of a felled pine tree, and even a previously robbed 

 nest of a herring-gull, have been used. 4 



1 Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 296. 2 Field, 1884, vol. 63, p. 702. 



3 Ibid., 1901, vol. Ixxvii. p. 751. 4 Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 295. 



