SEA-BIRDS AND PLOVERS. 375 



a piece of a Ringed Plover's egg-shell within five yards of it. 

 The fisherman who showed it to me said that it had only con- 

 tained three eggs. 



Golden Plover (Charadrius pluvialis). — I saw a single bird 

 of this species on the hills near Boot. 



Lapwing (Vanellus vulgaris). — There were scattered pairs of 

 these birds all over Walney Island ; also at Ravenglass, and on 

 the hills round Boot. At Arnside there were several fair-sized 

 flocks feeding on the sands, as well as breeding pairs. 



Oystercatcher (Hcematopus ostralegus) .— Walney Island. I 

 examined four nests of this species on Walney Island, where the 

 birds were fairly common. Two of these nests were on patches 

 of shingle, one being a little way above high-water mark, and 

 the other in the centre of the sand-hills (amongst which there 

 are a good many flat stretches covered with shingle). They 

 were shallow hollows scratched out amongst the stones, with a 

 few pieces of broken shell round the rims. They both con- 

 tained three eggs. The hollows measured about 7 in. in 

 diameter and lg- in. deep. Of the other two nests, one was on 

 a hillock covered with short turf, and the hollow, which measured 

 7 in. diameter by 2 in. deep, was thickly lined with bits of dead 

 thistle-stems, and contained two eggs; the second was a shallow 

 depression amongst some heather, 4 in. diameter by 1 in. deep, 

 and also contained two eggs. One of these clutches of two eggs 

 I blew, and found to be very hard-set; they must therefore have 

 been the full complement of eggs in that case. In another 

 case of one clutch of three I found one egg quite fresh, one with 

 a distinct chicken formed in it, and one in a condition midway 

 between the two ; this would lead one to suppose that the bird 

 must have started sitting as soon as the first egg was laid. I 

 found a nestling in one part of the beach ; it was crouched down 

 on the pebbles, with its head stretched straight out in front. The 

 general colour of the down was almost black, with a few streaks 

 and mottlings of brown. The bill was black, and the feet flesh- 

 coloured. There were several large flocks of these birds round 

 the coast of the island, and these I took to be non-breeders. 



Ravenglass. The Oystercatcher was if anything even com- 

 moner at Ravenglass than on Walney Island. In an hour's walk 

 among the sand-hills on the south side of the Esk I found no fewer 



