64 OYSTER-CATCHER. 



very active. If pursued they hide their heads in the first 

 hole they come to, as if thinking, like the Ostrich, that if 

 they cannot see you, you cannot see them. 



Male; weight, about sixteen or seventeen ounces; length, a 

 little over one foot four inches, or from that to one foot 

 five, or Sir William Jardine says, to one foot seven inches ; 

 the bill, which is three inches long, is of a deep orange 

 yellow colour at the base, and paler towards the tip, which 

 is much compressed; iris, crimson red, the eyelids reddish 

 orange, below the eye is a small white spot in the autumn 

 and summer months. Head, crown, neck on the back and 

 sides, in front, and the nape, black, of a glossy velvet ap- 

 pearance; chin, throat, and the breast above, glossy velvet 

 black, the latter below, white; in winter there is a white 

 gorget more or less developed on the front of the neck, 

 begun to be assumed in the autumn, and worn till the spring. 

 Back, above, glossy velvet black, with a reflection of green 

 and bluish ash-colour; below, white. 



The wings have the first quill feather about half an inch 

 longer than the second, and at the same time the longest in 

 the wing underneath they are white, the axillary plume also 

 white; they expand to the width of two feet eight inches; 

 greater wing coverts, white on the tips, forming a broad 

 bar over the wing; lesser wing coverts, glossy velvet black; 

 primaries, dusky black, with part of their inner webs white, 

 in the shape of an oblong spot towards the tip; secondaries 

 and tertiaries, black, with a reflection of green and bluish 

 ash-colour; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. 

 Tail, white on the inner half, black on the outer; upper tail 

 coverts, white. Legs and toes, pale purple reddish, deeper 

 coloured with the season; claws, dusky black. 



In the winter the plumage is not so clear and bright. 



The male and female are alike. They are said to moult 

 both in the spring and autumn. * 



The young are at first beautifully mottled over with greyish 

 brown down. In their first year's plumage they have the 

 bill yellowish brown, tinged with orange, the back and wing 

 coverts margined with brown, and the white is not so pure; 

 the feet are greyish white tinged with pink. The white 

 gorget is not put on till the second winter. 



Sir William Jardine says that he has seen specimens of a 

 dull white or fawn-colour. 



The plate is taken from a design by the Rev. R. P. Alington. 



