172 
CHARADRIIDyE. 
been bolder had all four eggs been laid and incubation com- 
nieiiced; but at any rate I saw nothing of her for about an hour 
previously to my discovery of the treasure. Although I had 
not the smallest doubt that the eggs were Turnstone’s — indeed 
they could have been nothing else — I thought it best to take 
one egg, intending to return cautiously next evening, and per- 
haps see the bird leave the nest. However, early in the 
morning a man came with the very two eggs to claim the 
reward I had offered, and although he seemed much aggrieved 
by the charge, I am quite sure the rascal had been watching me. 
Two of the eggs were a good deal like the figure in Mr Hewitson’s 
work, but the ground colour of the third was of a brighter green ; 
all were blotched with amber brown, reddish brown, and pur- 
plish grey, the markings of the latter colour being smallest. 
The average length was one inch and six lines, the breadth one 
inch two lines. 
I have no doubt that if some of the smaller islands were 
carefully and patiently explored, other nests would be found. 
Shetlanders as a rule care little for such minute work. They 
have no objections to visit a colony of Terns or Gulls, and bring 
home a good-sized handkerchieful of eggs; but to potter about 
for hours after “ twa-three peerie bits o’ tings ” like Turn- 
stone’s eggs, is more than they have patience to attem23t. 
THE OYSTEE-CATCHEE. 
Hcematopus ostralegus. 
SHELDER. 
Although a constant resident in Orkney, the Oyster-catcher 
is l)ut a summer visitor to Shetland, arriving about the middle 
of March, and taking its departure at the end of September. 
1 have only seen it twice in winter. Why it should leave us 
in autumn seems quite unaccountable ; a difference in food or 
climate naturally suggests itself, but the extreme south of one 
group of islands being luit fifty miles from the extreme north 
