THE OYSTER-CATCHER. 433 



and, except about the season of breeding, will seldom permit a per- 

 son 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 evi- 

 dent, on examining 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 the mud at the bottom of inlets, are frequently the 

 prey of the Oyster-catcher ; as are muscles, spout-fish, and a 

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

 abound. 



" 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 rapidity. 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 recol- 

 lected 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 apparatus. I was compelled to relinquish my bird, 

 and to make for the shore with considerable mortification, and the 

 total destruction of the contents of my powder-horn. The wounded 

 bird afterwards rose, and swam with great buoyancy." 



The eggs of this bird are most generally a creamy-drab 

 color, with numerous blotches and spots of blackish-brown. 

 Their form is ovoidal ; and their dimensions vary from 2.30 

 to 2.12 inch in length by from 1.62 to 1.50 in breadth. 



STREPSILAS, ILLIGER. 



Strepsilas, ILLTGER, Prodromus (1811). (Type Tringa interpres, L.) 

 Upper jaw with the culmen straight from the nasal groove to near the slightly 

 upward bent tip; the bill tapering to a rather blunt point; no membrane between 

 the anterior toes; hind toe lengthened, touching the ground; legs transversely 

 scutellate anteriorly; reticulated laterally and behind; tail rounded. 



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