WADING BIRDS. 
56 
usual solicitude of parental affection, and on the least alarm 
the male starts off with a loud scream, while the female, if 
present, to avoid the discovery of her charge, runs out some 
distance previous to taking wing. The young, as soon as re- 
leased from the shell, follow the guiding call of the mother, and 
on any imminent danger threatening, instinctively squat on the 
sand, when, from the similarity of their color, it is nearly im- 
possible to discover their artless retreat. On these occasions, 
the parents make wide circuits on either hand, now and then 
alighting, and practising the usual stratagem of counterfeited 
imbecility, to draw away attention from their brood. The 
note of this species consists commonly of a quick, loud, and 
shrill whistling call like ’wkeep, 'wheep, whco, or peep, peep, 
often reiterated, as well at rest as while on the wing. 
While migrating, they keep together in lines like a mar- 
shalled troop, and however disturbed by the sportsman, they 
still continue to maintain their ranks. At a later period the 
flock will often rise, descend, and wheel about with great 
regularity, at the same time bringing the brilliant white of 
their wings into conspicuous display. When wounded, and 
at other times, according to Baillon, they betake themselves 
to the water, on which they repose, and swim and dive with 
celerity. They have sometimes also been brought up and tamed 
so as to associate familiarly with ducks and other poultry. 
This bird is still rare in New England, though plentiful along 
the shores of the Middle States. Two examples have been taken 
on the Bay of Fundy. 
Mr. Walter Hoxie, in the “ Ornithologist and Oologist ” for 
August, 1887, gave an interesting account of a pair of these birds 
moving their eggs when the nest was discovered. While Mr. 
Hoxie was watching the parents they carried the eggs about one 
hundred yards from the old nest, and deposited them safely in a 
nest which he saw the birds prepare. 
Note. — The European Oyster-catcher ostra- 
legus) occurs occasionally in Greenland. 
