238 THE AMERICAN OYSTER-CATCHER. 



on them during the heat of the sun; but in Labrador, it was found sitting as 

 closely as any other bird. Here, then, is another instance of the extraordi- 

 nary difference of habit in the same bird under different circumstances. It 

 struck me so much, that had I not procured a specimen in Labrador, and 

 another in our Middle Districts, during the breeding season, and found them 

 on the closest examination to be the same, I should perhaps have thought 

 the birds different. Everywhere, however, I observed that this bird is fond 

 of places covered with broken shells and drifted sea-weeds or grasses, as a 

 place of security for its eggs, and where, in fact, it is no very easy matter to 

 discover them. The eggs are two or three, measure two inches and one- 

 eighth in length, by an inch and a half in breadth, and are of the form of 

 those of a common hen. They are of a pale cream colour, spotted with ir- 

 regular marks of brownish-black, and others of a paler tint, pretty equally 

 dispersed all over. The birds, even when not sitting on them, are so very 

 anxious about them, that on the least appearance of an enemy, they scream 

 out loudly, and if you approach the nest, fly over and around you, although 

 always at a considerable distance. When you meet with the young, which 

 run as soon as they are hatched, the old birds manifest the greatest anxiety. 

 They run before you, or fly around you, with great swiftness, and emit 

 peculiar notes, which at once induce their little ones to squat among the 

 sand and broken shells, where, on account of their dull greyish colour, it is 

 very difficult to see them unless you pass within a foot or two of them, 

 when they run off emitting a plaintive note, which renders the parents 

 doubly angry. Their shape is now almost round, and the streaks of their 

 back and rump, as well as the curved points of their bills, might induce you 

 to believe them to be any thing but the young of an Oyster-catcher. I have 

 caught some, which I thought were more than a month old, and yet were 

 unable to fly, although full feathered. They appeared weakened by their 

 fatness, and were overtaken by running after them on the sands. There 

 were no parent birds near or in sight of them; yet I much doubt if they 

 procured their own food at this period, and have more reason to believe that, 

 like some other species of birds, they were visited and supplied with food at 

 particular hours of the day or of the night, as is the case with Herons and 

 Ibises, for the Oyster-catcher is scarcely nocturnal. 



By the beginning of October these birds return to the south. I saw them 

 at Labrador until the 11th of August, but cannot say at what period they 

 leave that country. When wounded while wading or on the shore, they 

 make for the water, on which they float buoyantly and move with ease. 



The flight of the American Oyster-catcher is powerful, swift, elegant at 

 times, and greatly protracted. While they are on wing, their beauties are 



