PIED OYSTER-CATCHER. 
39 
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 ra- 
pidity. 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 de- 
struction 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 to- 
wards 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 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 
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 
