18 



PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 



sert from my own observation, the exploits of one of them in this 

 way having nearly cost me 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 to- 

 wards 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 relin- 

 quish my bird, and to make for the shore, with considerable mor- 

 tification, 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 compressed at 

 the point, very much like that of the Woodpecker tribe, but re- 

 markably narrowed near the base where the nostrils 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 evi- 

 dently 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; 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 



