TBD OYSTER-CATCHER. 545 
to suppose, that it had borrowed the eye of the Pheasant, the legs and 
feet of the Bustard, and the bill of the Woodpecker. 
The Oyster-Catcher frequents the sandy sea-beach of New Jersey, 
and other parts of our Atlantic coast, in summer, in small parties of 
two or three pairs together. They are extremely shy, and, except 
about the season of breeding, will seldom permit a person 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 evident, on examining the 
hard sands where they usually resort, which are found thickly perfo- 
rated with oblong holes, two or three inches in depth. The small 
crabs called fiddlers, that burrow in the mud at the bottom of in- 
lets, 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 principal food, however, of this bird, according to European 
writers, and that from which it derives its name, is the oyster, which 
it is said to watch for, ald snatch suddenly from the shells, whenever 
it surprises them sufficiently open. In search of these, it is reported 
that it often frequents the oyster beds, looking out for the slightest 
opening through which it may attack its unwary prey. For this pur- 
pose the form of its bill seems very fitly calculated. Yet the truth of 
these accounts is doubted by the inhabitants of Egg Harbor, and 
other parts of our coast, who positively assert, that it never haunts 
such places, but confines itself almost solely to the sands; and this 
opinion I am inclined to believe correct, having myself uniformly 
found these birds on the smooth beach bordering the ocean, and on 
the higher, dry, and level sands, just beyond the reach of the summer 
tides. On this last situation, where the dry flats are thickly interspersed 
with drifted shells, I have repeatedly found their nests, between the 
middle and 25th of May. The nest itself is a slight hollow in the 
sand, containing three eggs, somewhat less than those of a Hen, and 
nearly of the same shape, of a bluish cream color, marked with 
large, roundish spots of black, and others of a fainter tint. In some, 
the ground cream color is deAitute of the bluish tint, the blotches 
larger, and of a deep brown. The young are hatched about the 25th 
of May, and sometimes earlier, having myself caught them running 
along the beach about that period. They are at first covered with 
down of a grayish color, very much resembling that of the sand, and 
marked with a streak of brownish black on the back, rump, and neck, 
the breast being dusky, where, in the old onés, it is black. The bill 
is at that age slightly bent downwards at the tip, where, like most other 
young birds, it has a hard protuberance that assists them in breaking 
the shell; but in a few days afterwards this falls off.* These run along 
the shore with great ease and swiftness. 
place in small troops, taking day after day the same course. They are difficult to 
approach, but when one is shot, the flock will hover over it for some time, without 
heeding the intuder. During flight they assume the = wedge shape, like Ducks. 
They feed at night, when the tide is suitable, and are oflen very noisy. Muscles, 
and smaller shell fish, crabs, &c. &c., are their most common food. — Ep. 
* Latham observes, that the young are suid to be hatched in about three weeks ; 
* 
