130 
CHAEADRIID^. 
than a hundred nests of the oyster-catcher, and described the eggs 
to be of a very pale brown, with darker spots.* The evolutions 
of a pair of these birds, when I was on Gull Island, Strangford 
lough, in June 1816, evinced that they had a nest there. Mr. 
J. H. Garrett visited several of the islands, and a part of the 
eastern shore of this lough, on the 3rd June, 1819, and ascer- 
tained that oyster- catcliers were breeding there ; but not numer- 
ously. He saw only three or four of their nests (in some of 
which were eggs) and one pair of the birds themselves. They 
appeared to have young ; but these he could not find. On that 
gentlemans going to other islands of the lough on the 6th of 
June, a nest with eggs was found on the Bird Island, off Island 
Mahee, and the only oyster- catchers seen were its owners. The 
nest (he remarks) was merely a depression in the gravel, and did 
not contain any fragments of shells, as described by Hewitson. 
The same observation applies to about half-a-dozen seen on the 
Strangford islands, although the nests of the ring plover, placed 
within a few yards of them did, in almost every instance, contain 
numerous pieces of white shell, which had evidently been carried 
to the spot."'’ To mention one or two localities remote from the 
preceding: — On the 12th June, 1835, a nest with eggs was 
observed on Straw Island (one of the islands of Arran), off Galway 
bay;t on the 17th of the same month, one was found on the 
Keroe islands, off the Wexford coast, and the eggs, three in 
number, were laid on the stems of sea plants, carelessly placed on 
the top of stones. J 
With respect to fresh water being inhabited by the oyster- 
catcher, I was assured by the gamekeeper at Shanes Castle, 
in 1834, that a few of these birds frequent the shores of 
Lough Neagh at aU seasons of the year. A friend, on his return 
from Scotland in 1832, informed me, that he had seen many of 
them in July that year about the river Tay above Dunkeld ; per- 
* Mr. Hewitson’s work, in which the eggs of British birds are admirably figured, 
had not appeared when the preceding remarks were wiutten. The eggs in question 
partook of the markings of both varieties represented by that author, 
t Mr. R. Ball. + Mr. Poole. 
