Oyster-catchers 



ter-catchers allow the sun-baked sand to do the greater part of 

 the incubating, the parents confining themselves only at night or 

 during storms on three or four pale buff eggs spotted and blotched 

 with chocolate, and laid directly on the shingle, in a depression. 

 Mr. Walter Hoxie, in the "Ornithologist and Oologist, " tells of 

 seeing a pair of these birds whose nest had been discovered, but 

 not disturbed, take the eggs about one hundred yards farther 

 along the beach and deposit them safely, one by one, in a new 

 nest which he watched them prepare. Fluffy chicks, that run as 

 soon as hatched, will squat and remain motionless like plovers, 

 secure in their plumage's perfect imitation of their surroundings. 



253 



