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The Guernsey Bird Act includes these birds under the name 'Piesmarans, which is the name given to the Oystercatcher by all the French-speaking fishermen and boatmen, and which I suppose must be looked upon only as the local name, though I have no doubt it is the common name also on the neighbouring coast of Normandy and Brittany.
NORTH CAROLINA: Forster's tern, oystercatcher, egret and snowy egret. Nat. Asso. Ruffed grouse rapidly disappearing; bobwhite becoming scarce. Perhaps American and snowy egret. If long-billed curlew is not extinct, it seems due to become so. No definite, reliable record of it later than 1885.
The Oystercatcher breeds also in both the small Islands, Jethou and Herm, on almost all the rocky islands to the north of Herm, in Sark and Alderney, and on Burhou, near Alderney, where I found one clutch of three of the most richly marked Oystercatcher's eggs I ever saw: these, as well as another clutch, also of three eggs, were placed on rather curious nests; they were on the smooth rock, but in both cases the birds had collected a number of small stones and made a complete pavement of them, on which they placed their eggs; there was no protection, however, to prevent the eggs from rolling off.
There seem, however, to be considerable numbers remaining in flocks throughout the summer, without apparently the slightest intention of separating for breeding purposes, as I have often counted as many as forty or fifty together in June and July. The Oystercatcher breeds in Guernsey itself about the cliffs. Mr.
Among species likely to be exterminated in the near future are the wood-duck and band-tailed pigeon. COLORADO: Sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse; nearly all the shore birds. CONNECTICUT: All the shore birds; quail, purple martin. DELAWARE: Wood duck, upland plover, least tern, Wilson tern, roseate tern, black skimmer, oystercatcher, and numerous other littoral species.
It occurs also in Alderney in the autumn, but I have not seen it there in the breeding-season. Professor Ansted includes it in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There are a male and female, in breeding plumage, in the Museum, and also one in winter plumage. OYSTERCATCHER, Haematopus ostralegus, Linnaeus. French, "Hiûtrier pie."
I cannot from my observation agree with this supposition of the Curlew breeding in the Islands; nor can I agree with the statement made by a writer in 'Cassel's Magazine' for June or July, 1878, that he found a young Curlew in the down on one of the Islands near Jethou, probably from the description 'La Fauconnière. The writer of this paper in 'Cassel's Magazine' was evidently no ornithologist, and must, I think, have mistaken a young Oystercatcher, of which several pairs were breeding there at the time, for a young Curlew; his description of the cry of the old birds as they flew round was much more like that of the Oystercatcher than the Curlew.
MAINE: Great auk, Labrador duck, Eskimo curlew, oystercatcher, wild turkey, heath hen, passenger pigeon; puma, gray wolf, wolverine, caribou. MARYLAND: Sandhill crane, parrakeet, passenger pigeon; bison, elk, beaver, gray wolf, puma, porcupine. MASSACHUSETTS: Wild turkey, passenger pigeon, Labrador duck, whooping crane, sandhill crane, black-throated bunting, great auk, Eskimo curlew.
Professor Ansted includes the Oystercatcher in his list, but only marks it as occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There is an Oystercatcher and also a few of the eggs in the Museum. CURLEW. Numenins arquata, Linnaeus. French, "Courlis," "Grand courlis cendré."
Howard Saunders, Colonel l'Estrange and myself found one very curiously placed nest of the Oystercatcher on the ridge of a hog-backed rock at the bottom of the cliff, near the south end of the Island; it was not much above high-water mark, and quite within reach of heavy spray when there was any sea on: we could distinctly see the eggs when looking down from the cliffs on them, and the two old birds were walking about the ridge of rock as if dancing on the tight-rope; how they kept their eggs in place on that narrow ridge, exposed as it was to wind and sea, was a marvel.
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