434 PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 



in this way having nearly cost rne my life. On the sea-beach 

 of Cape May, not far from a deep and rapid inlet, I broke the 

 wing of one of these birds, and being without a dog, instantly 

 pursued it towards the inlet, which it made for with great 

 rapidity. We both plunged in nearly at the same instant ; 

 but the bird eluded my grasp, and I sunk beyond my depth ; 

 it was not until this moment that I recollected having carried 

 in my gun along with me. On rising to the surface, I found 

 the bird had dived, and a strong ebb current was carrying me 

 fast towards the ocean, encumbered with a gun and all my 

 shooting apparatus. I was compelled to relinquish my bird, 

 and to make for the shore, with considerable mortification, 

 and the total destruction of the contents of my powder-horn. 

 The wounded bird afterwards rose, and swam with great 

 buoyancy out among the breakers. 



On the same day I shot and examined three individuals of this 

 species, two of which measured each eighteen inches in length, 

 and thirty-five inches in extent ; the other was somewhat less. 

 The bills varied in length, measuring three inches and three- 

 quarters, three and a half, and three and a quarter, thinly com- 

 pressed at the point, very much like that of the woodpecker 

 tribe, but remarkably narrowed near the base where the nos- 

 trils are placed, probably that it may work with more freedom 

 in the sand. This instrument, for two-thirds of its length 

 towards the point, was evidently much worn by digging ; its 

 colour, 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 wiug- 

 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 ; secondaries, white, part of them 

 tipt 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 



