O YSTER-CA TCHERS. 



345 



feet of the bustard, and the bill of the woodpecker. During the summer the 

 oyster-catchers frequent the sandy sea-beach of all parts of ihe Atlantic coast, 

 roving about in small parties of two or three pairs together. They are ex- 

 tremely shy, and, except about the season of breeding, will seldom allow 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 shell-fish. The small crabs, called " fiddlers," that burrow at the bottom 

 of inlets, are frequently the prey of the oyster-catchers, as also are limpets, 

 mussels, and cockles. The former it can hitch from the rocks with great 

 certainty by an oblique tap with its bill. Bivalve shells, when closed, it opens 



-The Ovster-catcher {Hcemaiopns odraksmi). 



by striking them at the hinge, and in the case of the cockle by holding the 

 shell steadily with its foot, and wrenching with its bill as with a crowbar. 



It is said that this bird frequents oyster-beds, and watches the opening of 

 the shells, that it may drag out the unfortunate mollusks, and for this purpose 

 its bill seems very well adapted. This account is, however, contradicted by 

 dwellers on the coast, who state that the bird does not resort to the oyster- 

 beds, but is always seen on the smooth beach bordering the ocean, and on the 

 high, dry, level sands, just beyond the reach of the summer tides. When the 

 shores are flat and of a retentive nature, so that the surface remains covered 

 with a shallow stratum of water after the tide has ebbed, the oyster-catcher 

 finds its prey readily, as the shells of the biv.alves are then partially opened, 

 and it can easily insert its wedge-shaped bill and wrench them asunder; but 



