3604 The Zoologist — July, 1873. 



turns to watch them all night, and now he employs a man specially 

 to look after them. These gulls are very valuable to him, not for 

 the sake of their eggs, but on account of their dung; they manure 

 his land, and keep it entirely free from worms, slugs, and noxious 

 insects, closely following the plough amongst the rooks. It is a 

 curious fact that though so closely protected they do not seem 

 to increase at all in numbers, but about the same quantity return 

 year after year : presumably the young ones find other breeding 

 quarters. 



Oystercalcher. — Pretty numerous, nesting freely amongst the 

 large stones and drift sea- weed above high-water mark at both 

 ends and along the west coast of the island: one nest I found in 

 the latter situation was made entirely of broken pieces of drift-wood, 

 sticks, straw and sea-weed, so wonderfully do these birds adapt 

 their nests to the nature of the ground on which they fix their 

 temporary homes. I have recorded an instance of this in my notes 

 on Holyhead Island, where a pair of oystercatchers had partly 

 made their nest of rabbits' dung, in order, no doubt, ihat it might 

 look as much like the adjacent land as possible. In one nest 

 I found a young bird about two days old and two addled eggs ; the 

 nestling greatly resembled a young lapwing of the same age; its 

 chest, throat and stomach were of a spotless white, and its upper 

 parts delicately barred with dark gray and brown : I was struck 

 with the large and apparently disproportionate size of its legs and 

 feet : one of the old birds, probably the female, feigned lameness 

 on my approaching the nest: I have never seen an oystercatcher 

 do this before, though they always fly anxiously around the intruder, 

 uttering piercing screams, rather than whistles. 



Ringed Plover. — Numerous along the north, west and south 

 coasts. I disturbed one bird in a little hollow in the sand-hills by 

 coming suddenly up from behind a hillock ; she was so astonished 

 at my appearance that she stood still by her nest for some seconds 

 before taking flight: there were three eggs in the nest, and one 

 about a foot outside, quite cold but fresh. Did the latter egg 

 belong to another bird } 



Shieldiake. — About three pairs nesting at the north and four 

 at the south end, but their nests are very hard to discover. 

 Mr. Geldert, the lighthouse-keeper, told me a curious fact con- 

 nected with the nesting habits of this species. During the time 

 the female is incubating, after feeding, she, in company with the 



