PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 175 



The Oyster-catcher will not only take to the water when 

 wounded, but can also swim and dive well. This fact I can 

 assert from my own observation, the exploits of one of them in 

 this way having nearly cost me my life. On the sea beach of 

 Cape May, not far from a deep and rapid inlet, I broke the 

 wing of one of these birds, and being without a dog, instantly 

 pursued it towards the inlet, which it made for with great ra- 

 pidity. We both plunged in nearly at the same instant; but the 

 bird eluded my grasp, and I sunk beyond my depth; it was not 

 until this moment that I recollected having carried in my gun 

 along with me. On rising to the surface I found the bird had 

 dived, and a strong ebb current was carrying me fast towards 

 the ocean, encumbered with a gun and all my shooting appa- 

 ratus; I was compelled to relinquish my bird, and to make for 

 the shore, with considerable mortification, and the total destruc- 

 tion of the contents of my powderhorn. The wounded bird 

 afterwards rose, and swam with great buoyancy out among the 

 breakers. 



On the same day I shot and examined three individuals of 

 this species, two of which measured each eighteen inches in 

 length, and thirty-five inches in extent; the other was somewhat 

 less. The bills varied in length, measuring three inches and 

 three quarters, three and a half, and three and a quarter, thinly 

 compressed at the point, very much like that of the Woodpecker 

 tribe, but remarkably narrowed near the base where the nostrils 

 are placed, probably that it may work with more freedom in 

 the sand. This instrument for two-thirds of its length towards 

 the point, was evidently much worn by digging; its colour a 

 rich orange scarlet, somewhat yellowish near the tip; eye large, 

 orbits of the same bright scarlet as the bill, irides brilliant yel- 

 low, pupil small, bluish black; under the eye is a small spot of 

 white, and a large bed of the same on the wing coverts; head, 

 neck, scapulars, rump, wing quills, and tail black; several of 

 the primaries are marked on the outer vanes with a slanting 

 band of white; secondaries whtte, part of them tipt with black; 

 the whole lower parts of the body, sides of the rump, tail co- 



