92 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Young birds have a rusty tinge in the black of the back, and the feathers 

 are tipped obscurely with greyish-white ; the legs are of a dirty grey flesh colour ; 

 the bill is also of a more dingy yellow, and only, or under, 2j inches. 



Upper parts of nestling grey, the down tipped with buff, and mottled on head 

 and back with black ; several irregular black lines down the crown and back ; 

 under parts white. 



I have only found the nest on small rocky or shingly islets, such as are 

 common near the larger islands on the west coast of Scotland. But I have seen 

 at Rannoch, in Perthshire, several years, and elsewhere in the Highlands, large 

 numbers of Oyster- Catchers conducting their young down to the sea from mid- 

 July onwards. By the sea the nest is a depression in the shingle, just above high 

 water mark, or on a ledge of rock a few feet higher, or even a hollow in the 

 turf on the grassy top of the islet. On the rock a little sea-weed is used, but 

 whether placed there by the bird, or not, is doubtful. More probably the bird 

 selects the spot because the sea-weed is already there, thrown up by the storms 

 of the previous winter. There the eggs are laid, as often three as four, not 

 abruptly pyriform, of a clay-buff, spotted and streaked with grey-brown and black; 

 one in my cabinet from the Faeroes is very boldly marked with one or two large 

 blotches of greyish and black, but this is unusual. Their length is nearly 2^ 

 inches by about ij. 



The Oyster- Catcher is a shy and wary bird, but, like the Peewit, Missel Thrush, 

 and many another shy bird, very bold near its nest or young. At Rannoch, 

 mentioned above, I have got perfectly sick of them and their incessant noise, 

 which, as a general rule, is rather a pleasant wild note than otherwise, consisting 

 of a loud, clear, monosyllabic whistle, repeated six or eight times. In autumn and 

 winter they cannot be considered noisy, but are, of course, conspicuous, so doubtless, 

 except when danger presses, find it best to be quiet. Their food is, by preference, 

 shell-fish, but they eat annelids and any small marine creatures they meet with, 

 including sand-hoppers. I have watched a Sea-pie knocking a small green crab 

 to pieces, and picking out the meat. They frequent sand and shingle banks for 

 safety, at high-water pass their time amongst the sand-hoppers, feeding at low 

 water on mussel-scalps and tangle-covered rocks. Where the latter are absent 

 they never stay long, and are only seen in ones and twos. Where suitable feeding 

 grounds are adjacent, flocks of forty or fifty are not uncommon. I have never 

 found them an easy bird to watch at reasonably close quarters. 



Every one knows how easy it is to get an unsuspecting limpet from a rock, 

 and how difficult when the creature has taken alarm and had time to cramp itself 

 to the stone. The Oyster- Catcher knows this too, and (according to Gray, " Birds 



