PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 21 



into the flock, observed that all their evolutions were 

 like a regularly organized military company." 



The oyster-catcher will not only take to the water 

 when wounded, hut 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 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 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 out among the breakers. 



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 yellow, 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 



