PIED OYSTER-CATCHER 



19 



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 a male; the gullet widened into a kind of crop; the stomachy 

 or gizzard, contained fragments of shell-fish, pieces of crabs, and 

 of the great king-crab, with some dark brown marine insects. The 

 flesh was remarkably firm and muscular, the skull thick and 

 strong, intended no doubt, as in the Woodpecker tribe, for the se- 

 curity 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. 

 Dampier met with it on the coast of New Holland; the British 

 circumnavigators also saw it on Van Diemen^s Land, Terra del 

 Fuego, and New Zealand. 



