adorned the sides of its head. The. gnome-like effect was 
made even more striking by the addition of several basal 
plates to the back of the sides of the bill, another dec- — 
oration during this breeding season. When the bird was -’ 
released the watchers laughed, in spite of sympathy for its 4 
fright, at the awkward speed of the brilliant feet touching _ 
the high crags of the cliff as it shot away from its un- — 
welcome visitors. _ : 
The adventurers sat on he ao of thie: acre with their . 
feet hanging over the precipice, watching the antics of the a 
Baird, the Brandt, and the White-crested Cormorants, — 
whose deserted nests could easily be seen through their | 
glasses, in the niches of the inaccessible islet across from _ 
them. The Indians told them, “Long ago, there used to be ~ 
many Shag’s nests,” giving these birds the common name, — 
“upon both of these islets, but they were robbed so often 4 
that they have learned it is safer to move to a place where 4 
even Indian boys cannot climb.” ; 
A pair of Black Oyster-catchers, ee on a pointed — 
crag complained ceaselessly in high-pitched, monotonous 
tones at the intrusion upon their solitude. Crow-like, these 
birds are in body, but imagine a chisel-shaped bill nearly 
twice as long as the crow’s, and as brilliant as a red vine © 
maple in autumn. Add yellow eyes surrounded by a ~ 
drunkard’s eye-lids, a pinkish pair of legs and feet trimmed — 
- with black toenails, and you can picture these birds as they 
saw them. Why named Oyster-catchers, they knew not, for — 
these birds scorn to hunt their game in the tame waters of an 
oyster bed, and prefer to snatch a mouthful of chiton, limpet, 
mussel, or other creature of the surf from the very jaws of 
old Neptune as he splashes in the spray. 
The Indians call the island on which the visitors lender: 
a name to which is given phonetic spelling, Do-si-aht- see-tah, 
meaning ‘the place where you go to get petrels,”’ and well 
is it named, for the ground had been literally honeyeombed 
ee py this bird, which flies only at night. Another member of 
86 
