THE OYSTER-CATCHER. 
529 
space in front. The back and upper parts are ashen-brown, and the primaries dull black. 
The length of the adult bird is not quite seven inches. 
The handsome Oyster-Catcheb is another of our coast birds, and is tolerably plentiful 
upon the shore. From the black and white hues of its plumage, it is sometimes called the 
Sea-Pie. 
It generally keeps to the shore, haunting sandy bays, interspersed with partially sub- 
mersed rocks, and picking up its subsistence with great animation. It feeds mostly on 
mollusks, mussels and limpets being ordinary articles of its food. It is able to detach the 
firmly-clinging limpet from the rock by striking a sharp blow with its wedge-like beak, 
and detaching the mollusk before it has had time to take the alarm and draw itself firmly 
against its support. It is swift of foot, and a good swimmer, frequently taking to the 
water in search of food, and being able to dive when alarmed. Diving, however, does not 
seem to be a favorite accomplishment, and is seldom resorted to unless under peculiar 
circumstances. 
In some parts of Europe, the Oyster-Catcher makes short inland migrations during the 
summer, but even in such cases it displays its aquatic propensities by keeping near the river 
banks, and feeding on the worms, slugs, and similar creatures. 
The nest of the Oyster-Catcher is merely a hole scraped in the ground, wherein lie three 
or four eggs of a yellowish-olive, spotted with gray and brown. They are generally placed on 
the beach, well above high-water mark, but the bird sometimes makes its home at some distance 
from the sea. The flat sandy coasts seem to be the localities most favored by the Oyster- 
Catcher. The young are covered with soft down of a grayish-brown color. 
The head, neck, upper part of the breast, scapularies, quill-feathers, and latter half of the 
tail-feathers are deep shining black, and the rest of the plumage is pure white. The curious 
beak is three inches in length, very much compressed — i 0 e . , flattened sideways — and towards 
the point is thinned off into a kind of wedge or chisel shaped termination. The rich ruddy 
Vol. U.— 67. 
