372 
PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 
believe correct ; having myself uniformly found these birds on the 
smooth beach bordering the ocean, and on the higher dry and Wei 
sands, just beyond the reach of the summer tides. On this last situa- 
tion, where the dry flats are thickly interspersed with drifted shells, I 
have repeatedly found their nests, between the middle and twenty-fifth 
of May. Tbe nest itself is a slight hollow in the sand, containing three 
eggs, somewhat less than those of a hen, and nearly of the same shape, 
of a bluish cream color, marked with large roundish spots of black, and 
others of a fainter tint. In some the ground cream color is destitute of the 
bluish tint, the blotches larger, and of a deep brown. The young are 
hatched about the twenty-fifth of May, and sometimes earlier, having 
myself caught them running along the beach about that period. They 
are at first covered with down of a grayish color, very much resembling 
that of the sand, and marked with a streak of brownish black on the 
back, rump and neck, the breast being dusky, where in the old ones it is 
black. The bill is at that age slightly bent downwards at the tip, where, 
like most other young birds, it has a hard protuberance that assists them 
in breaking the shell; but in a few days afterwards this falls off.* 
These run along the shore with great ease and swiftness. 
The female sits on her eggs only during the night, or in remarkably 
cold and rainy weather ; at other times the heat of the sun and of the 
sand, which is sometimes great, renders incubation unnecessary. But 
although this is the case, she is not deficient in care or affection. She 
watches the spot with an attachment, anxiety and perseverance that are 
really surprising, till the time arrives when her little offspring burst 
their prisons, and follow the guiding voice of their mother. When 
there is appearance of danger they squat on the sand, from which they 
are with difficulty distinguished, while the parents make large circuits 
around the intruder, alighting sometimes on this hand, sometimes on 
that, uttering repeated cries, and practising the common affectionate 
stratagem of counterfeited lameness to allure him from their young. 
These birds run and fly with great vigor and velocity. Their note 
is a loud and shrill whistling ivheep — wlieep — tvheo, smartly uttered. A 
flock will often rise, descend, and wheel in air with remarkable regu- 
larity, as if drilled to the business, the glittering white of their wings 
at such times being very conspicuous. They are more remarkable for this 
on their first arrival in the spring. Some time ago I received a stuffed 
specimen of the Oyster-catcher from a gentleman of Boston, an expe- 
* Latham observes, that the young are said to be hatched in about three weeks ; 
and though they are wild when in flocks, yet are easily brought up tame if taken 
young. " I have known them," says he, "to be thus kept for a long time, frequent- 
ing the ponds and ditches during the day, attending the ducks and other poultry to 
shelter of nights, and not unfrequently to come up of themselves as evening ap- 
proaches." Gnu Synop. vol. in., p. 220. 
