308 BULLETIN 14G; UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Plumages. — The plumages and molts are fully described in A 

 Practical Handbook of British Birds edited by H. F. Witlierby 

 (1920). 



Food. — Chiefly marine mollusca; univalves, such as limpets 

 {Patella), small whelks {Buccinium) and periwinkles {Litorina) 

 and bivalves, including mussels {Mytilus edulis), cockles (Cardium), 

 etc. Also annelida, earthworms, and sandworms; Crustacea (shrimp, 

 etc.), and insects, including Coleoptera, Diptera and their larvae 

 (especially Tipulidae),Lepidoptera (larvae and pupae of Noctuidae) ; 

 occasionally Holothurians and some vegetable matter (grass seeds, 

 grains, etc.). 



Beha/vior. — The feeding habits of the oyster catcher have been ex- 

 haustively studied by J. M. Dewar, who has given the results of his 

 investigations in a paper in the Zoologist for 1908. Careful exam- 

 ination of the shells of mussels showed that about 78 per cent were 

 opened by means of a stab from the bill through the dorsal border. 

 As in their normal position this is the exposed portion this is per- 

 haps natural, but only those which have the valves slightly opened 

 are vulnerable and the weakest j)oint in the shell is on the ventral 

 border, which is rarely exposed. The best feeding time is when the 

 scalps are first exposed by the ebb, before the mussels have closed 

 their shells and again when the tide is rising and the shells are just 

 beginning to open again. When the tide is up the birds rest in long 

 lines, head to wind. The flight of the oyster catcher is peculiar and 

 characteristic, the wings being rapidly moved within a very short 

 arc, so that they seem to be vibrated at the tips. 



Enemies. — The oyster catcher has few natural enemies, though no 

 doubt occasionally a nest is destroyed by Corvidae (hooded crows 

 and carrion crows or rooks). 



Fall. — The Misses Rintoul and Baxter have observed a tendency 

 to the renewal of spring display during the autumn months. The 

 Shetland birds move southward in September and do not return until 

 March. 



Winter. — During the winter months the oyster catcher is generally 

 to be met with in flocks, easily recognized by their striking colora- 

 tion and characteristic notes. The wild ringing sound of their calls, 

 a clear kle-eep, coming from hundreds of throats at once, is, as T. A. 

 Coward remarks, as delightful as it is harmonious. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Iceland, the Faroes, the British Isles, and the 

 coasts of northern Europe from northwest Spain and Brittany to 

 the Baltic, and along the Scandinavian coast to Archangel, probably 



