PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 547 
On the same. day, I shot and examined three individuals of this 
species, two of which measured each eightcen inches in length, and 
thirty-five inches in extent; the other was sonewhat less. The bills 
varied in length, measuring three inches and taree 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 instryment, for two thirds of its 
length towards the point, was evidently much worn by digging; its 
color, 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 outer vanes with a slanting band of white ; second- 
aries, white, part of them tipped with black; the whole lower parts 
of the body, sides of the rump, tail-coverts, and that portion of the 
tail which they cover, are pure white; the wings, when shut, cover 
the whole white plumage of the back and rump; legs and naked part 
of the thighs, pale red; feet, three-toed, the outer joined to the middle 
by a broad and strong membrane, and each bordered with a rough, 
warty edge; the soles of the feet are defended from the hard sand.and 
shells by a remarkably thick and callous, warty skin. 
On opening these birds, the smallest of the three was found to be 
amale; the gullet widened into a kind of crop; the stomach, or gizzard, 
contained fragments of shell fish, pieces of crabs, and of the great 
king-erab, with some dark brown marine insects. The flesh was re- 
markably firm and muscular; the skull, thick and strong, intended, no 
doubt, as in the Woodpecker tribe, forthe security of the brain from 
the violent concussions it might receive while the bird was engaged 
in digging. The female and young birds have the back and scapulars 
of a sooty brownish olive. 
This species is found as far south as Cayenne and Surinam. Dam- 
pier met with it on the coast of New Holland; the British cireumnavi- 
gators also saw it on Van Diemen’s Land, Terra del Fuego, and New 
Zealand. 
