1MK1) OYSTER-CATCHER. 173 



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

 ropean 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 sufficiently 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 calculated. Yet the truth of these accounts 

 are doubted by the inhabitants of Egg Harbour and other parts 

 of our coast, who positively assert that it never haunts such 

 places, but confines itself almost solely to the sands. And this 

 opinion I am inclined to believe correct; having myself uni- 

 formly found these birds on the smooth beach bordering the 

 ocean, and on the higher dry and level sands, just beyond the 

 reach of the summer tides. On this last situation, where the 

 dry flats are thickly interspersed with drifted shells, I have 

 repeatedly found their nests, between the middle and twenty- 

 fifth of May. The nest itself is a slight hollow in the sand, con- 

 taining three eggs, somewhat less than those of a hen, and nearly 

 of the same shape, of a bluish cream colour, marked with large 

 roundish spots of black, and others of a fainter tint. In some 

 the ground cream colour is destitute of the bluish tint, the 

 blotches larger, and of a deep brown. The young are hatched 

 about the twenty-fifth of May, and sometimes earlier, having 

 myself caught them running along the beach about that period. 

 They are at first covered with down of a grayish colour, very 

 much resembling that of the sand, and marked with a streak of 

 brownish black on the back, rump and neck, the breast being 

 dusky, where in the old ones it is black. The bill is at that age 

 slightly bent downwards at the tip, where, like most other 

 young birds, it has a hard protuberance that assists them in 

 breaking the shell; but in a few days afterwards this falls off.* 

 These run along the shore with great ease and swiftness. 



* Latham observes, that the young are said to be hatched in about three 

 weeks; and though they are wild when in flocks, yet are easily brought up 

 tame if taken young. "1 have known them," says he, "to be thus kept 



