160 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



a time have I crawled on hands and knees for half- 

 a-mile along the sands to try and get a shot, without 

 success, and no one who has not tried it knows the 

 luxury of standing upright after this tiring work. 

 Unless the ground present some cover in the shape 

 of a sea wall or a few scattered boulders of rock, the 

 surest way to obtain a shot is with a boat. Instead 

 of rowing alongshore, however, it is better to put 

 out to some distance, and then bear down directly 

 on the flock. In this way they allow a nearer ap- 

 proach, and as they almost invariably follow the 

 coast-line, or cross the water when flying, a good 

 right or left shot may be obtained. If you are well 

 concealed, you may arrest the flight of a single bird, 

 and attract it within shot by imitating the call-note 

 above given, but this artifice seldom succeeds with a 

 flock unless it consists of only a few birds. The 

 loud whistle secondly noted above is more fre- 

 quently heard in the breeding season, and is uttered 

 frequently, as if in alarm when the eggs or young 

 are approached. At this season the Oystercatcher 

 becomes more fearless. On two or three occasions 

 when I had found the nest, one of the parent birds 

 continued to fly round me within shot. This I sus- 

 pected to be the female, but the plumage of both 

 sexes is so similar that they can only be distin- 

 guished by dissection. 



Many authors state that the Oystercatcher always 

 lays four eggs. Out of a score of nests which I have 



