OYSTER CATCHER. 147 



strong beaks : this occurs where the enemy is a rook, crow, 

 or skua. 



The call-note of the bird in question sounds much like 

 the word quip or whip, uttered in a very high tone, and 

 repeated several times when on the wing : the concert is 

 generally begun by one bird in a moderate tempo, which 

 increases to allegro, and finally presto, presto, being joined 

 by an increased number of voices until all unite in the 

 chorus. 



The Oyster Catcher is very easily kept in confinement, 

 and when it is obtained young may be made perfectly tame, 

 and kept at large in company with ducks and fowls, as it 

 will roost with them in the outhouses. 



The food on which the bird subsists in a natural state 

 is reported to be oysters, from whence its name originates, 

 but it remains a question whether its beak is sufficiently 

 strong to open the shell of a living oyster, provided the 

 bird could even dive for such prey ; the most probable truth 

 is, that when chance puts an oyster in its way and the shell 

 is open, the bird may draw the contents of the shell out 

 and eat them. Muscles are frequently devoured by the 

 present species, as the remains are found in the bird's stomach, 

 and so are divers shell-fishes, worms, and marine insects, 

 which it finds among the pebbles that are below the soft 

 mud, and which it turns up and grubs among with its strong 

 beak. In pools, where Crustacea and small fry are in abun- 

 dance, the bird also passes much of its time. In spots 

 where the shore- worm (arenicola lujnbricoides) is so numerous 

 on the retiring of the sea-water that numbers may be trod- 

 den to death at a time, the Oyster Catcher is most abundant, 

 and its strong beak may be provided for the purpose of 

 drawing these insects out of the hard sand into which they 

 retire on the slightest noise. In confinement there is no 



