

OYSTER-CATCHER. 499 



pairs many associate and breed together at particular and 

 favourite localities. Montagu says they appear to be more 

 abundant on some parts of the sandy flat coasts of Lincoln- 

 shire than on any other part he was acquainted with. 

 Near Skegness, on that coast, at a point called Gibraltar, 

 there is an isolated part of a marsh, where Oyster- catchers 

 bred in such abundance, that a fisherman informed him he 

 had collected a bushel of eggs in a morning. 



The Oyster- catcher is to be seen, as before noticed, all 

 round our coast, from the Scilly Islands to those of Shet- 

 land. Mr. Selby mentions having observed them breeding 

 on the Fern Islands, and upon most of the salt water firths 

 and lochs of Sutherlandshire. 



It is common in Denmark, Sweden, and on all the shores 

 of Scandinavia, particularly on the west coast of Norway 

 from spring to autumn, visiting the Faroe Islands and Ice- 

 land. Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, says this bird inha- 

 bits all Russia and Siberia; that it breeds on the great 

 Arctic flats, and extends its range to Kamtschatka. Pen- 

 nant adds, that the Fins hold this bird in the utmost detes- 

 tation ; for they suppose that when they are engaged in 

 the seal-chase, it gives notice to the seals of the approach 

 of the hunters, and by that means frightens away the 

 game. 



The Oyster-catcher inhabits all the coasts of the southern 

 parts of Europe, passing to North Africa by the line of 

 Italy and Sicily. B. Hodgson, Esq., includes it in his 

 birds of Nepal, and M. Temminck includes it among the 

 Birds of Japan. 



The beak is three inches long, of a deep orange at the 

 base, lighter in colour towards the tip, greatly compressed, 

 and ending in a thin vertical edge ; the irides crimson ; the 

 eye-lid reddish orange, with a white spot below the eye ; the 



K K 2 



