130 CHAEADllIID^E. 



than a hundred nests of the oyster-catcher, and described the eggs 

 to be " of a very pale brown, with darker spots.* The evolutions 

 of a pair of these birds, when I was on Gull Island, Strangford 

 lough, in June 1846, evinced that they had a nest there. Mr. 

 J. E. Garrett visited several of the islands, and a part of the 

 eastern shore of this lough, on the 3rd June, 1849, and ascer- 

 tained that oyster- catchers were breeding there ; but not numer- 

 ously. He saw only three or four of their nests (in some of 

 which were eggs) and one pair of the birds themselves. They 

 appeared to have young ; but these he could not find. On that 

 gentleman's going to other islands of the lough on the 6th of 

 June, a nest with eggs was found on the Bird Island, off Island 

 Mahee, and the only oyster-catchers seen were its owners. " The 

 nest (he remarks) was merely a depression in the gravel, and did 

 not contain any fragments of shells, as described by Hewitson. 

 The same observation applies to about half-a-dozen seen on the 

 Strangford islands, although the nests of the ring plover, placed 

 within a few yards of them did, in almost every instance, contain 

 numerous pieces of white shell, which had evidently been carried 

 to the spot." To mention one or two localities remote from the 

 preceding : — On the 12th June, 1835, a nest with eggs was 

 observed on Straw Island (one of the islands of Arran), off Galway 

 bay;t on the 17th of the same month, one was found on the 

 Keroe islands, off the Wexford coast, and the eggs, three in 

 number, were laid on the stems of sea plants, carelessly placed on 

 the top of stones. % 



With respect to fresh water being inhabited by the oyster- 

 catcher, I was assured by the gamekeeper at Shanes Castle, 

 in 1834, that a few of these birds frequent the shores of 

 Lough Neagh at all seasons of the year. A friend, on his return 

 from Scotland in 1832, informed me, that he had seen many of 

 them in July that year about the river Tay above Dunkeld ; per- 



* Mr. Hewitson's work, in which the eggs of British birds are admirably figured, 

 had not appeared when the preceding remarks were written. The eggs in question 

 partook of the markings of both varieties i - epreseuted by that author. 



t Mr. R. Ball. + Mr. Poole. 



