Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/441

Rh a piece of a Ringed Plover's egg-shell within five yards of it. The fisherman who showed it to me said that it had only contained three eggs.

(Charadrius pluvialis).—I saw a single bird of this species on the hills near Boot.

(Vanellus vulgaris).—There were scattered pairs of these birds all over Walney Island; also at Ravenglass, and on the hills round Boot. At Arnside there were several fair-sized flocks feeding on the sands, as well as breeding pairs.

(Hæmatopus ostralegus) .—Walney Island. I examined four nests of this species on Walney Island, where the birds were fairly common. Two of these nests were on patches of shingle, one being a little way above high-water mark, and the other in the centre of the sand-hills (amongst which there are a good many flat stretches covered with shingle). They were shallow hollows scratched out amongst the stones, with a few pieces of broken shell round the rims. They both contained three eggs. The hollows measured about 7 in. in diameter and 1½ in. deep. Of the other two nests, one was on a hillock covered with short turf, and the hollow, which measured 7 in. diameter by 2 in. deep, was thickly lined with bits of dead thistle-stems, and contained two eggs; the second was a shallow depression amongst some heather, 4 in. diameter by 1 in. deep, and also contained two eggs. One of these clutches of two eggs I blew, and found to be very hard-set; they must therefore have been the full complement of eggs in that case. In another case of one clutch of three I found one egg quite fresh, one with a distinct chicken formed in it, and one in a condition midway between the two; this would lead one to suppose that the bird must have started sitting as soon as the first egg was laid. I found a nestling in one part of the beach; it was crouched down on the pebbles, with its head stretched straight out in front. The general colour of the down was almost black, with a few streaks and mottlings of brown. The bill was black, and the feet flesh-coloured. There were several large flocks of these birds round the coast of the island, and these I took to be non-breeders.

Ravenglass. The Oystercatcher was if anything even commoner at Ravenglass than on Walney Island. In an hour's walk among the sand-hills on the south side of the Esk I found no fewer