small flat pieces of stone. Simple and hard though the materials be which compose its nest, it is as
particular in its arrangement of them as many of our smaller birds are in the softer and more luxurious
composition o f their neat and beautiful abodes. Whether the position for the egg is chosen upon the pebbly
beach or upon the harder surface of the rock, it is always carefully strewed with these small flat pieces of
shell o r gravel. The whiter they are, the better they seem to please the taste of the architect, which seems,
however, to experience some difficulty in placing them to its liking, and prepares numerous nests before it
makes use of one. This I have always noticed with wonder, and in some instances have seen as many as
a dozen, all apparently as well finished as the one which contained the eggs.” I suspect that nests o f this
description are only to be met with in certain localities; for the eggs found on the fine sandy borders o f
some o f our inland rivers were placed in a slight depression cmly; and in the rocky spots o f the coast where
they are deposited ju st above high water-mark, but little in the shape of a nest is to be detected. The
Oyster-catcher generally lays two, three, or four eggs. Perhaps the normal number may be three, since
not more than three, and most frequently two, were found in the nests detected by me in the beaches in
Tasmania, where I was surrounded by H<ematopus longirostris and H.fuliginosus, the former of which is very
nearly allied to the European species; and we may safely infer that the nidification of the two birds is as
similar as their outward appearance.
Macgillivray, speaking of the bird when raiding, as it sometimes does, into the interior of the country,
says: “ When by the silver Dee, gliding rapidly along amidst corn-fields, pastures, and fragrant birchwoods,
you hear a loud and shrill cry, and, turning round, see a pair of Sea-pies winging their flight up the
country, their glossy black and pure white plumage contrasting strongly with every thing around, and their
long vermilion beaks giving them a strange and foreign aspect, they never fail to rivet your gaze. Equally
attractive are they when running about on some grassy meadow, picking up an insect or a slug, then
standing, and again advancing w-ith short quick steps, prettily tripping it among the gowans, then emitting
their loud alarm-cries, and flying off to a more distant place or alighting on the pebbly beach.
“ m i l e reposing, the Sea-pie stands with its legs quite straight, or uses one leg only, the other being
drawn up, the body horizontal, the neck retracted, the head either directed forward or with the bill buried
among the feathers o f the hack. In this position they present a curious appearance when there is a high
wind, as in that case each individual directs his breast towards it, and on a sandy beach o r level shore they
often stretch out in long lines. Its flight is strong and steady, performed by regular beats of the extended
B * , with the neck drawn in. a»d the feet directed backwards. Its alarm-note is a single shrill scream;
on some occasions it emits a modulated softened cry o f several notes. When wounded so as to
wim
but
be unable to fly, it readily betakes itself to the water and swims off, sitting light and moving with considerable
speed.” .
T he eggs, which are deposited in April and May, are o f a yellowish stone-colour, spotted with ash-grey
and dark brown, and are about two inches and two lines in length by one inch and six lines-in breadth.
The process ofihcubation occupies about three weeks; and during that period the male keeps guard, as it
were, and becomes very notsy on the approach of danger. The young when hatched are clothed in a greyish
brown down.
The Oyster-catcher readily becames tame, especially when taken youngs and then forms an amusing pet,
o f which a very interesting instance is given in Thompson’s ‘Natural History o f Ireland,’ vol. ii. p. 127, to
which I must beg leave to refer my readers.
Both Selby and Macgillivray speak disparagingly of the flesh o f this bird, the former saying it “ partakes of
the odour o f the food upon which it. subsists,'’ and the latter that it is “ very dark, abounds in fat o f a yellowish
colour, has a disagreeable smell, and rather unpleasant ta s te ;” but this is contrary to my experience (which,
however, is not g r e a t) ; for those I have eaten have been tender, juicy, and well flavoured ; and th at they :
must be partaken of by many persons is certain, since it is very frequently seen in the shops o f the second-class
poulterers in London; and we learn from Macgillivray that it is as often seen in the markets o f Edinburgh,
where they are usually sold at two shillings a couple.
The sexes are precisely alike at the same ¡ p , both in colour and markings; their throat, which is jet-
black in summer, is crossed by a mark o f pure white in winter, the absence or presence of which will serve
to indicate the period of the year at which a mounted specimen has been killed. The hill is a t all times
orange in the adult bird, the eye blood-red, and the legs pinky flesh-colour; hut their hues are more or less
ri lant, according to the season ; thus in autumn they are not so bright or vivid as in spring, prior to the
commencement of the breeding-season, when, like all other birds, they are in their finest costume.
The Plate represents a bird in the summer and another in the winter plumage, a trifle under the natural
size.