The Black Oyster-catcher 



looking very big and bold. Then he will draw his head in and settle his 

 body lower on the legs and sneak off, glancing furtively over his shoulder 

 to see if his movements are being shadowed. Without question he is 

 trying to develop the kind and degree of our interest. If the female was 

 sitting upon eggs she slipped away too soon to be caught at home, and 

 she spends the entire time of our stay arranging elaborate pantomines for 

 our misguidance. Now she bends with quivering wing and dips her 

 head up and down, as though inviting attention to her charming nestlings. 

 "Ar'n't they darlings?" (She means a heap of mussel shells just before 

 her eyes). Or again she settles down upon a barnacle-covered rock and 

 broods virtuously — on barnacles. 



And if, by any accident, one does become possessed of the real secret, it 

 is great sport to devise a stealthy return and to watch the bird steal away 

 from the eggs, slowly, painfully, in abject humiliation, hoping against hope 

 that she is eluding observation, until a safe distance is reached. When 

 the game is "all off" the birds cause the rocks to resound with their 

 strident cries, and if there are neighbors, these join forces with the im- 

 mediately besieged ones until our ears ache. 



1350 



A HARD CRADLE 



NEST OF BLACK OYSTERCATCHER ON DESTRUCTION ISLAND 



Photo by the Author 



