OYSTER PLOVER GRAY PHALAROPE. 169 



with great swiftness, take flight, and utter the loud shrill 

 whistle peculiar to them under such circumstances. The 

 oyster plover is gregarious, and generally occurs in small 

 flocks, which break up and separate on the approach of the 

 breeding season. 



Generally frequenting the sea-shore, at times they occur in 

 considerable numbers inland, frequenting fallow and ploughed 

 lands in company with the blackheaded and common gulls, 

 and sometimes in such large numbers, that, on one occasion, 

 we had the satisfaction of observing a ploughed field, on the 

 lands of Mellifont Abbey, in Louth, occupied by some eighty 

 or a hundred birds, and interspersed with lapwings and the 

 black-headed gull, they really presented a beautiful appear- 

 ance, their unsullied under-plumage appearing to the greatest 

 advantage when taking flight. 



Their food consists of the various marine animals left on 

 the shore by the receding tide, amongst which we may enu- 

 merate small crabs, muscles, and shell-fish, in search of which 

 they frequently wade in the water. 



The place for incubation is usually chosen on the ground ; 

 and the eggs, generally four in number, are deposited in any 

 natural hollow or slight depression in the sand or shingle. 

 The eggs are long and are light yellow in colour, spotted and 

 blotched with blackish brown. When the parent birds have 

 young they manifest the greatest anxiety on the approach of 

 a dog or stranger, and wheel about, loudly vociferating their 

 shrill alarm ; and even, like the lapwing or green plover, feign 

 lameness, in hopes of decoying the inquisitive stranger. 



Indigenous. 



GENUS LXXXI. PHALAROPUS (PHALAROPE). 



SPECIES 162 THE GRAY PHALAROPE. 



Phalaropus lobatus. Lath. 

 Phalarope platyrhinque. Temm. 



THIS handsome species can be only set down as a rare and 

 uncertain straggler on our coasts, and is obtained only during 

 autumn, or the commencement of winter. In the beautiful 

 plumage of the summer the phalarope is of extreme rarity on 

 our shores. 



This interesting bird is remarkable for the curious deve- 

 lopment of a thin membrane fringing the toes, which, at one 

 period among the earlier naturalists, obtained for it the ap- 

 propriate name of the " Cootfooted sandpiper ;" and which 



