530 THE AMERICAN OYSTER-CATCHER. 



color is deepest at the base. During some of the winter months there is no white collar round 

 the throat, and in the yearling bird the back and wings are mottled with brown. The total 

 length of the Oyster-Catcher is about sixteen inches. 



This European Oyster-Catcher is occasionally found in America. 



THE AMERICAN OYSTER-CATCHER (Hcematopus palliatus). This interesting bird fre- 

 quents the sandy shores of the United States. It is extremely shy, seldom permitting any one 

 to approach it within gunshot. It walks with a stately, watchful manner ; now and again 

 probing for shellfish. Its great love for oysters has given the species its name. The thick 

 shells naturally present a complete barrier to their bills, stout as they are, but the bird is said 

 to watch quietly until the shells are wide open, when the bill is suddenly thrust in and the 

 meat abstracted. It flies with great vigor and velocity, uttering a deep, shrill whistling, 

 wheep-wheep-wheo. A flock will rise as one body, wheel, and sweep the air with great uni- 

 formity, reminding one of a squad of drilled soldiers ; the white of their wings now and then 

 conspicuously showing. 



The Oyster-Catcher can dive and swim well, and takes to the water when wounded. 



The only means of studying the habits of the shy bird Audubon found to be the use of a 

 telescope, with which he could trace its motions when at the distance of a quarter of a mile. 

 According to his statements, the bird forms no regular nest, " but is contented with scratching 

 the dry sand above high-water mark, as to form a slight hollow, in which it deposits its eggs. 

 On the coast of Labrador, and in the Bay of Fundy, it lays its eggs on the bare rock. When 

 the eggs are on sand, it seldom sits on them during the heat of the sun ; but in Labrador, 

 it was found sitting as closely as any other bird. Here, then, is another instance of the 

 extraordinary difference of habit in the same bird under different circumstances. It struck 

 me so much, that had I not procured a specimen in Labrador, and another in our Middle 

 Districts, during the breeding season, and found them on the closest examination to be the 

 same, I should perhaps have thought the birds different. Everywhere, however, I observed 

 that this bird is fond of places covered with broken shells and drifted sea- weeds or grasses, as 

 a place of security for its eggs, and where, in fact, it is no very easy matter to discover them. 

 The eggs are two or three, measure two inches and one-eighth in length, by an inch and a half 

 in breadth, and are of the form of those of a common hen. They are of a pale cream-color, 

 spotted with irregular marks of brownish-black, and others of a paler tint, pretty equally dis- 

 persed all over. The birds, even when not sitting on them, are so very anxious about them, 

 that on the least appearance of an enemy, they scream out loudly, and if you approach the 

 nest, fly over and around you, although always at a considerable distance. When you meet with 

 the young, which run as soon as they are hatched, the old birds manifest the greatest anxiety. 

 They run before you, or fly around you with great swiftness, and emit peculiar notes, which at 

 once induce their little ones to squat among the sand and broken shells, where, on account of 

 their dull grayish color, it is very difficult to see them unless you pass within a foot or two of 

 them, when they run off, emitting a plaintive note, which renders the parents doubly angry. 

 Their shape is now almost round, and the streaks of their back and rump, as well as the 

 curved points of their bills, might induce you to believe them to be anything but the young of 

 an Oyster-Catcher. I have caught some, which I thought were more than a month old, and 

 yet were unable to fly, although full feathered. They appeared weakened by their fatness, 

 and were overtaken by running after them on the sands. There were no parent-birds near or 

 in sight of them ; yet I must doubt if they procured their own food at this period, and have 

 more reason to believe that, like some other species of birds, they were visited and supplied 

 with food at particular hours of the day or of the night, as is the case with Herons and Ibises, 

 for the Oyster-Catcher is scarcely nocturnal. 



" By the beginning of October these birds return to the south. I saw them at Labrador 

 until the llth of August. 



"The flight of the American Oyster-Catcher is powerful, swift, elegant at times, and 

 greatly protracted. While they are on the wing, their beauties are as effectually displayed as 

 those of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker of our woods, the colors of which are somewhat similar. 



