56 WADING BIRDS. 



usual solicitude of parental affection, and on the least alarm 

 the male starts off with a loud scream, while the female, if 

 present, to avoid the discovery of her charge, runs out some 

 distance previous to taking wing. The young, as soon as re- 

 leased from the shell, follow the guiding call of the mother, and 

 on any imminent danger threatening, instinctively squat on the 

 sand, when, from the similarity of their color, it is nearly im- 

 possible to discover their artless retreat. On these occasions, 

 the parents make wide circuits on either hand, now and then 

 alighting, and practising the usual stratagem of counterfeited 

 imbecility, to draw away attention from their brood. The 

 note of this species consists commonly of a quick, loud, and 

 shrill whistling call like 'wheep, 'wheep, wheo, or peep, peep, 

 often reiterated, as well at rest as while on the wing. 



While migrating, they keep together in lines like a mar- 

 shalled troop, and however disturbed by the sportsman, they 

 still continue to maintain their ranks. At a later period the 

 flock will often rise, descend, and wheel about with great 

 regularity, at the same time bringing the brilliant white of 

 their wings into conspicuous display. When wounded, and 

 at other times, according to Baillon, they betake themselves 

 to the water, on which they repose, and swim and dive with 

 celerity. They have sometimes also been brought up and tamed 

 so as to associate familiarly with ducks and other poultry. 



This bird is still rare in New England, though plentiful along 

 the shores of the Middle States. Two examples have been taken 

 on the Bay of Fundy. 



Mr. Walter Hoxie, in the " Ornithologist and Oologist " for 

 August, 1887, gave an interesting account of a pair of these birds 

 moving their eggs when the nest was discovered. While Mr. 

 Hoxie was watching the parents they carried the eggs about one 

 hundred yards from the old nest, and deposited them safely in a 

 nest which he saw the birds prepare. 



Note. — The European Oyster-catcher {Hamatopus ostra 

 legMs) occurs occasionally in Greenland. 



