THE OYSTER-CATCHER 



are greyish-buff in ground-colour, marked with blotches, dots, and streaks of 

 blackish-brown and with grey shell-markings. 



The Oyster-Catcher is extremely shy and difficult of approach, and when its 

 feeding grounds are covered by the tide the flocks betake themselves to quiet 

 stretches of sand or flat rocky islets, where they while away the time, standing on 

 one leg with their long bills hidden under the feathers of their shoulders, or preen- 

 ing their showy black-and-white plumage. The rather unfortunate name of this 

 species is misleading, as it certainly does not catch oysters, but feeds chiefly on 

 limpets, mussels, and other shell-fish, which it wrenches off the rocks or picks up 

 among the ripples of the incoming or receding tide. 



The name is no doubt derived from the Dutch word for Magpie, aekster or 

 ackster (see Howard Saunders' Manual and Canon Rawnsley's Round the Lake 

 Country), and must originally have signified Oyster-magpie. 



The cry or alarm-note is shrill and penetrating, and when heard at night on 

 approaching their haunts is very striking. 



The sexes are alike in colour. 



THE AVOCET. 



Recurvirostra avocetta, Linnaeus. 

 Plate 64. 



In former days this species annually visited in spring the eastern and southern 

 counties of England, where it nested on the mud-flats and estuaries ; but now it is 

 a rarity and no longer breeds, though still seen occasionally at the time of the 

 vernal migration and also in autumn. During summer the Avocet inhabits various 

 parts of Europe, where it can find suitable breeding grounds, from as far north as 

 Denmark southwards to Spain and also Africa. Eastwards it ranges over a great 

 part of Asia, the birds nesting in the colder regions, migrating to warmer latitudes 

 in winter. 



The three or four eggs are laid on dry expanses of mud or sand in the neigh- 

 bourhood of water, and in colour are pale yellowish-brown, blotched and spotted 

 with blackish-brown and marked with shades of grey. The birds are very noisy 

 when their territory is invaded, and their clamour, according to Lord Lilford, " is 

 almost deafening, consisting of a continued series of shrill yelps, from which 

 the Avocet derived some of its most common English designations, such as 

 ' Yelper ' and ' Clinker.' " 



