PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 
19 
The principal food, however, of this bird, according; 
to European writers, and that from which it derives its 
name, is tlie oyster, which it is said to watch for, and 
snatch suddenly from the shells, whenever it surprises 
them sufticientiy open. In search of these, it is reported 
that it often frequents the oyster beds, looking' out for 
the slightest opening through wbi<;h it may attack its 
Unwary prey. For this purpose the form of its bill 
seems very fitly calculated. Yet the truth of these 
Accounts are doubted by the inhabitants of Egg Harbour, 
and other parts of our coast, who positively asssert, that 
it never haunts such places, but confines itself almost 
solely to the sands : and this opinion I am inclined to 
believe correct; having myself uniformly found these 
birds on the smooth beach bordering the ocean, and on 
the higher, dry, and level sands, just beyond the reach 
of the summer tides. On this last situation, where the 
dry fiats are thickly interspersed with drifted shells, I 
have repeatedly found their nests, between the middle 
and 251 h of Maj'. The nest itself is a slight hollow in 
the sand, containing three eggs, somewhat less than 
those ot a hen, and nearly of the same sha))e, of a bluish 
oream colour, marked with large roundish spots of 
black, and others of a fainter tint. In some, the ground 
cream colour is destitute of the blnish lint, the blotches 
larger, and of a deep brown. The young are batched 
about the 25tb of May, and sometimes earlier, having 
uiyselt c.augbt them running along the beach about that 
1 ‘U’** “t covered nith dovt n of a 
grajish colour, very much resembling that of the sand, 
an marked with a streak of hrownisli black on the 
• ' neck, the breast being dusky, where 
“v w? ’S The bill is at that age 
sngntly bent dowmvards at the tip, where, like most 
other young birds, it has a hard protuberance that 
assists them in breaking the shell; but in a few days 
atterwards this falls off.* These run along the shore 
with great ease and swiftness. 
observes, tlmt the younv are said to be batched in 
u three weeks j and though, they are wild when in flocks, yyt 
