284 OYSTER CATCHER. 



Flattened sideways and particularly hard and strong, 

 it is singularly adapted to scooping out the flesh of the 

 various shell-fish on which it feeds. Whelks, mussels, 

 limpets and such like are its favourite food, together 

 with sand-worms and small fish. Its flight is very 

 powerful, and it is also capable of swimming, and when 

 wounded by a shot will often take to the water ; but it 

 is not so much at home here as when flying or running, 

 which it does with great quickness. 



The plumage of the Oyster Catcher is very hand- 

 some. The upper parts are black except the rump, 

 which is white ; the under parts are white, and there is 

 a white bar across the wings. The eggs are laid in a 

 hollow in the shingly beach, just above high-water 

 mark ; less frequently in the sands. This hollow is 

 lined with scraps of shells and pebbles, which the bird 

 seems to have great difficulty in arranging to its taste. 

 It seems frequently to construct several nests before 

 it arranges one to its liking. In this nest some time 

 in May three or rarely four eggs are laid, cream or 

 buff coloured, blotched, spotted and streaked with dark 

 brown, and underlying markings of grey. They re- 

 semble occasionally eggs of the Stone Curlew, but are 

 generally larger and darker ; and the structure of the 

 nest of course, if observed, would always settle the 

 difficulty. 



The Oyster Catcher can be made very tame if taken 

 young, and will live and roost quite happily with the 

 ducks and fowls of the farm-yard. 



