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 seabeach 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 pai ts of the body, sides 
of the rump, tail-coverts, and that portion of the tail which they 
