BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 363 



as a straggler from the south. This bird was known early in 

 our history, but was confounded with the Old World species 

 until it was separated and described by Temminck. Oyster- 

 opener would have been a better name for it, for as Dr. Coues 

 remarks, "Oysters do not run fast." No doubt the Oyster- 

 catcher once inhabited the entire eastern coast-line from the 

 Gulf of Mexico to Labrador, and bred upon the coast of 

 Massachusetts, as a large part of this coast is eminently suited 

 to its habits, and provides quantities of its chosen food (sea- 

 worms, mollusks, crustaceans, etc.) Nevertheless, there is no 

 definite record to substantiate this statement. The Oyster- 

 catcher was one of those beach-loving species that practically 

 was extirpated as a breeding bird along the Massachusetts 

 coast before ornithological records were made in America. 

 The colonists, and later the market hunters and eggers of 

 our coast, probably destroyed or drove off this bird, as they 

 did the Cormorants, Eider Ducks and other Ducks, the Wil- 

 lets and other large shore birds and the larger Gulls, which 

 once spent the summer in numbers along our coasts and un- 

 doubtedly bred here. Champlain found the Black Skimmer in 

 flocks "like the pigeons" about Nauset harbor on Cape Cod 

 between July 19 and 25, 1605.^ As this was in the breeding 

 season, the Skimmer may have bred there; but, like the 

 Oyster-catcher, it has been long regarded as a mere straggler 

 in Massachusetts. 



This bird and the Oyster-catcher probably were extirpated 

 from the shores of New England by the same causes that since 

 then have driven both from Long Island and the middle 

 States. Audubon establishes the fact that the Oyster-catcher 

 once bred on the Bay of Fundy and as far north as Labrador; 

 but since his definite statement has been questioned by Dr. 

 Brewer,^ who seems to think that he must have been misled 

 in some way, I quote Audubon's exact words: "Our Oyster- 

 catcher has a very extensive range. It spends the winter 



1 Champlain, Samuel de: Pub. Prince Soc, 1878, Vol. 2, p. 87. 



2 Since Dr. Brewer wrote, Audubon's Journals have been published, and in his Labrador Journal, 

 under date of July 6, 1833, when he was in the vicinity of Cape Whittle, he says, " Coolidge and party 

 shot two Oyster-catchers; these are becoming plentiful." Probably had Dr. Brewer read this def- 

 inite statement he would not have doubted that Audubon found Oyster-catchers in Labrador. 



