352 
OYSTER -CAT CHER. 
without the white on the throat. Temminck says that they change 
their feathers twice in the year, moulting in the spring and autumn ; 
but the colour of the plumage does not seem to change at these times ; 
the only difference consisting in the absence or presence of the white 
gorget on the throat. There does not appear to he any difference in 
the sexes in the young : the plumage is dusky ; the feathers margined 
with brown ; the eyes of a brownish-black, iris brown : feet of a greyish- 
black. Dr. Latham observes, it is easily tamed when taken young, and 
has been known to attend the ducks and other poultry to feed, and 
shelter at night. 
* On the sandy flat coast of Lincolnshire, we once observed a large 
flock of Oyster-catchers, and learned that a remarkably high tide had 
swept away all their eggs, together with those of the dilwall and 
richel bird, which usually lay their eggs ,a little above high-water mark. 
On that coast, near Skegness, at a point called Gibraltar, there is an 
isolated part of a marsh, where Oyster-catchers breed in such abun- 
dance, that a fisherman informed us he had taken a bushel of egg’s in a 
morning. Instinct has directed these, and other shore birds, to deposit 
their eggs above the flux of the highest spring tides, and therefore it 
must have been an unusually high tide to have caused such devastation 
amongst the eggs. The number of these layed by this bird, is inva- 
riably four, deposited in a small excavation without any nest, and like 
others of a similar nature, the bird always disposes them so as to occupy 
the least possible space, that they may be equally exposed to the incu- 
bating temperature of her body ; that is, with the smaller ends inwards. 
The weight of the egg is about an ounce and a half. 
It is said that the Oyster-catcher has no aversion to take the water ; 
probably like the curlew, it is not distressed on the water, and can 
occasionally make its escape by swimming if wounded ; a circumstance 
not unusual with the common sandpiper. They assemble in great 
numbers for their annual migration, but they lead a solitary life during 
the breeding season. 
“ Beautiful and easily domesticated as these birds are,” says a writer 
in Blackwood’s Magazine, “it is surprising they are not more frequently 
introduced in our pleasure grounds ; those who have visited Brighton 
within these few years, may remember the numbers running about 
without alarm, on the lawn of the Pavilion, exhibiting their smart, 
pie-balled glossy coats, in full contrast with their long, bright, orange 
beaks, and legs, and crimson irides.”^ 
