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THE OYSTEE-CATCHER. 



Sea-Pie. Oyster Plover. 



Hamatopm ostralegus, Linn. 



Is common around the coast, and permanently resident. 



Its favourite resort is the long range of bright sandy shore, with 

 which its lively and handsome appearance harmonises ; but in 

 scenes of a very different character it is not less attractive ; its 

 pied plumage of pure white and black, with orange-red bill and 

 legs,* appear particularly fresh and beautiful, as the sea-pie 

 perches on the darkly-grim basaltic rocks which, monster-like, 

 raise their heads above the ocean in the vicinity of the Giant's 

 Causeway. Its loud, clear, and shrill whistling note — tee-wheep 

 sounds pleasingly on the ear. Such, however, is not always 

 the case. Along the coast of Norway, where this bird was 

 met with, though not in large numbers, by Mr. George Matthews 

 and his sporting companions, they were often much annoyed by 

 its loud call alarming ducks of various species, in the pursuit of 

 which they were engaged. Low rocky coasts, on which limpets, 

 Litiorince, and other univalve shell-fish abound, are also much 

 resorted to. 



Oyster-catchers are rarely met with singly in Belfast bay, but 

 appear in small flocks, often consisting of about fifteen individuals. 

 They generally frequent the sandy reaches. Occasionally I have 

 observed them busily engaged feeding on the soft oozy banks, 

 and sometimes with their legs quite immersed in the water. They 

 are extremely wary, and during the day keep farther from the 

 shore than any other of the Grallatores ; but in the very early 

 morning have been shot from behind ditch-banks, bordering the 

 Long Strand, very near the town. When passing an inlet of the 

 bay on one occasion, at the early hour of five o'clock in the 

 morning, I observed a flock close to the shore, and near the 



* The eye, too, though not visible at such times, is handsome; the black pupill 

 being surrounded by a bright red iris, and tbe eyelid orange-red. 



