106 IHK PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 



formation of some of its parts, one might almost be led b^ 

 fancy to suppose, that it had borrowed the eye of the 

 pheasant, the legs and feet of the bustard, and the biil of 

 the woodpecker. 



The Oyster-Catcher frequents the sandy sea-beach of Nf;w 

 Jersey, and other parts of our Atlantic coast, in summer, in 

 small parties of two or three pairs together. They arc 

 extremely shy. and, except about the season of breeding, 

 will seldom permit a person to approach within gunshot. 

 They walk along the shore in a watchful, stately manner, 

 at times probing it with their long, wedge-like bills, in 

 search of small shell-fish. This appears evident, on exa 

 mining the hard sands where they usually resort, which are 

 found thickly perforated with oblong holes, two or three inches 

 in depth. The small crabs called fiddlers, that burrow in tho 

 iiuid at the bottom of inlets, are frequently the prey of the 

 Oyster-Catcher; as are muscles, spout fish, and a variet} 

 of other shell-fish and sea insects with which those shores 

 abound. 



The principal food, however, of this bird, according to 

 European writers, and that from which it derives its name, 

 is the oyster, which it is said to watch for, and snatch 

 suddenly from the shells, whenever it surprises them suffi- 

 ciently open. In search of these, it is reported that it often 

 frequents the oyster-beds, looking out for the slightest 

 opening through which it may attack its unwary prey. For 

 this purpose the form of its bill seems very fitly caJ- 



