560 OYSTER-CATCHER. 
and the head of the Adriatic. Throughout the greater part of the 
Mediterranean basin, however, it is principally a migrant; but it 
breeds on many of the inland waters of the Continent, and along 
the large rivers of Russia, as well as on the shores of the Black and 
Caspian Seas, whence it retreats in winter. In Asia the Arctic 
circle forms its northern summer-limit, while Burma, Ceylon, India, 
Baluchistan and -Persia are visited during cold weather ; migration 
extending down the Red Sea to Mozambique on the east side of 
Africa, and to Senegambia on the west. There are several other 
members of this cosmopolitan genus. 
The eggs, usually 3, but sometimes 4 in number, are yellowish 
stone-colour, spotted and scrolled with ash-grey and dark brown: 
measurements 2°2 by 1°5 in. They are commonly laid on shingle 
or among sand-hills, and frequently on a pavement of small frag- 
ments of shells or on a tussock of sea-pink growing upon a narrow 
ledge of rock; but I have seen them on the summit of a lofty 
stack,’ and also in the previously robbed nest of a Herring-Gull, 
while they have been found in meadows far from the sea, and Prof. 
Collett mentions a clutch laid in a cavity at the top of a felled pine. 
They are sometimes laid by the third week in April, while incuba- 
tion becomes general in the second half of May, and lasts three 
weeks. On rocky coasts each pair inhabits a certain district, but on 
flat shores considerable numbers may be found associated, and their 
noise is perfectly deafening when the young are just hatched, the 
old birds flying close round the head of an intruder, except where 
they have been much disturbed. At other times the Oyster-catcher 
is remarkably wary, and alarms every other bird in the neighhbour- 
hood with its shrill 2eeg, 2eep. It swims well and sometimes takes 
to the water of its own accord. Mussels, whelks, and limpets are 
neatly scooped from their shells by the bird’s powerful bill ; annelids, 
crustaceans, small fish and marine plants being also eaten. 
The arrangement of the black-and-white plumage of the adult is 
shown in the engraving ; bill orange-vermillion ; irides crimson ; legs 
and toes livid flesh-colour. Whole length 16°5 in.; wing 9°75 in. 
From autumn to spring the front and sides of the neck are white, 
and the bill is horn-coloured towards the tip. The young have the 
feathers of the back and wings margined with brown. 
A Sheathbill, Chionis alba, of Antarctic America, obtained in 
Carlingford Lough, co. Down, on December 2nd 1892, is in the 
collection of Mr. R. M. Barrington. Living examples have often 
been sent from the Falkland Islands. 
