366 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



assail a Eook or any other marauder. If their safety be im- 

 perilled, it becomes pretty to see how the parents unite in 

 employing every device to draw a stranger away from their 

 young, watching you from the top of a turfed wall, or from the 

 brow edge of the salt marsh. All through the year the mussel 

 scars of the Solway are frequented by numerous Oystercatchers, 

 including in the summer a good many non-breeding birds. The 

 number of the local residents is increased in autumn by an 

 immigration from the eastward. In 1888 we heard some 

 Oystercatchers whistling lustily as they passed over Carlisle from 

 east to west, between 11.30 and 12 p.m., on the 9th of 

 August. In 1890 I heard Oystercatchers crossing the town in 

 the same way on the 13th of August at 1 A.M. Other observers 

 independently confirm my observations. For instance, on the 

 2nd of November 1888 Mr. Tremble of Carlisle noticed a con- 

 siderable passage of these birds, commencing shortly before 9.30 

 P.M., and lasting about twenty minutes. The birds passed over 

 his house, flying from north or north-east to south-west, and 

 were making for the west coast, which they would strike about 

 the Wampool and Waver estuary. 



By the end of September legions of Oystercatchers line 

 certain portions of the Solway Firth from Bowness to Allonby, 

 their dark serried ranks easily distinguishing them from the 

 similar masses of Black-headed Gulls which also range along 

 the edge of the tide-way. The former birds prefer the open 

 portion of the Solway, are highly gregarious, and seldom permit 

 a gunner within shot. The best plan for procuring specimens 

 is to take a boat when the tide is ebbing, and to anchor on 

 one of the mussel-beds that lie higher than the rest and is 

 soon exposed. The Oystercatchers and Knots, with a few 

 Godwits and an occasional Whimbrel, fly down to the banks 

 as soon as the water is shallow enough to admit of their wading 

 over the scar, and, being hungry and eager to feed, are less 

 cautious than after they have satisfied their appetites. A second 

 device is to stalk them on a boisterous day, when they are 

 less wary than in fine weather. A third method is to wait 

 for these birds on a day when a very high tide covers the 

 whole beach near Allonby and forces them to fly within shot 



