212 OYSTER-CATCHER 
stones which they frequently resemble in size, are very 
difficult to find, but, when in sand, are often to be detected 
by the tracks or runs made by the birds. In the vicinity 
of the actual nesting site are many similar hollows empty, 
though often carefully prepared. In the earlier stage of 
breeding operations the birds stand or run by the edge of 
the water near their nesting place with apparent unconcern, 
but later they rise and fly over the head of the intruder 
with their sharp squeaking whistle. On the lofty coast of 
the central part of the island this species is not common, 
though where a fringe of reefs and tide-pools is laid bare 
at low water, a few may here and there be observed. Some 
Oyster-catchers haunt Maughold Head, and a few, as Mr. 
E. Callow tells me, breed there; in Laxey Bay they are 
stragglers of very rare occurrence. I have seen a pair in 
Douglas Bay resting upon shingle at the Crescent, but the 
species is generally very shy of the presence of man. A 
small number inhabits for most of the year the bays of 
Derby-haven and Castletown, and frequents the whole coast 
from Santon to Perwick, but I do not know any instance 
of breeding within these limits. On the Calf Sound and on 
its low skerries a few are to be seen; a pair nests regularly 
on Kitterland, a little rocky islet with a grassy cap, and 
others on the Calf itself, where in 1901 a pair was 
evidently breeding on rough grassy land near a small pond 
at some height above the sea, and where we saw also some 
eggs which had been taken on the turfy edge of the crags. 
Some Oyster-catchers breed also on the rocky promontories 
of Dalby, and thence small flocks or single birds visit at 
low tide the whole coast southward to Port Erin. Mr. 
Kermode says that near Peel there was some years ago a 
nest on a ledge of rocks along with those of the Herring 
Gull, and it is said to have nested regularly at White 
Strand, north of that town. 
