372 PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 



believe correct ; having myself uniformly found these birds on the 

 smooth beach bordering the ocean, and on the higher dry and level 

 sands, just beyond the reach of the summer tides. On this last situa- 

 tion, where the dry flats are thickly interspersed with drifted shells, I 

 have repeatedly found their nests, between the middle and twenty-fifth 

 of May. The nest itself is a slight hollow in the sand, containing three 

 eggs,' somewhat less than those of a hen, and nearly of the same shape, 

 of a bluish cream color, marked with large roundish spots of black, and 

 others of a fainter tint. In some the ground cream color is destitute of the 

 bluish tint, the blotches larger, and of a deep brown. The young are 

 hatched about the twenty-fifth of May, and sometimes earlier, having 

 myself caught them running along the beach about that period. They 

 are at first covered with down of a grayish color, very much resembling 

 that of the sand, and marked with a streak of brownish black on the 

 back, rump and neck, the breast being dusky, where in the old ones it is 

 black. The bill is at that age slightly bent downwards at the tip, where, 

 like most other young birds, it has a hard protuberance that assists them 

 in breaking the shell; but in a few days afterwards this falls off.* 

 These run along the shore with great ease and swiftness. 



The female sits on her eggs only during the night, or in remarkably 

 cold and rainy weather ; at other times the heat of the sun and of the 

 sand, which is sometimes great, renders incubation unnecessary. But 

 although this is the case, she is not deficient in care or afiection. She 

 watches the spot with an attachment, anxiety and perseverance that are 

 really surprising, till the time arrives when her little offspring burst 

 their prisons, and follow the guiding voice of their mother. When 

 there is appearance of danger they squat on the sand, from which they 

 are with difficulty distinguished, while the parents make large circuits 

 around the intruder, alighting sometimes on this hand, sometimes on 

 that, uttering repeated cries, and practising the common afiectionate 

 stratagem of counterfeited lameness to allure him from their young. 



These birds run and fly with great vigor and velocity. Their note 

 is a loud and shrill whistling wheep — wheep — wheo, smartly uttered. A 

 flock will often rise, descend, and wheel in air with remarkable regu- 

 larity, as if drilled to the business, the glittering white of their wings 

 at such times being very conspicuous. They are more remarkable for this 

 on their first arrival in the spring. Some time ago I received a stuifed 

 specimen of the Oyster-catcher from a gentleman of Boston, an expe- 



* Latham observes, that the young are said to be hatched in about three weeks ; 

 and though they are wild when in flocks, yet are easily brought up tame if taken 

 young. " I have known them,'' says he, " to be thus kept for a long time, frequent- 

 ing the ponds and ditches during the day, attending the ducks and other poultry to 

 shelter of nights, and not unfrequently to come up of themselves as evening ap- 

 proaches." Gen. Synop. vol. iii., p. 220. 



