15 
PIED OYSTER.CATCHER. 
HMMJITOPUS OSTRJILEGUS. 
[Plate LXIV.— Fig. 2, Male.'] 
Arct. Zool. No. 406.-~Gmel. Sijst.l, p. 694— Lath. Incl Orn. p. 752. Geti. St/n. Ill, p. 
219. — Catesby, I, 85. — Bewick, II, 23. — Stephens, Gen. Zool, vol XI, p. 494, p/. 
36. — VHuUrier^ Buff. VIII, p. 119, p/. 9. PI. EnL Ao. 929. — Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 531. 
—Pe ale’s Museum^ No. 4258. 
THIS singular species, although nowhere numerous, inhabits al- 
most every seashore, both on the new and old continent, but is never 
found inland. It is the only one of its genus hitherto discovered, 
and from the conformation of some of its parts one might almost be 
led by fancy to suppose, that it had borrowed the eye of the Pheasant, 
the legs and feet of the Bustard, and the bill of the Woodpecker. 
The Oyster-catcher frequents the sandy seabeach of New 
Jersey, and other parts of our Atlantic coast in summer, in small 
parties of two or three pairs together. They are extremely shy, 
and, except about the season of breeding, will seldom permit a 
person to approach within gunshot. They walk along the shore 
in a watchful stately manner, at times probing it with their long 
wedge-like bills in search of small shell-fish. This appears evi- 
dent on examining the hard sands where they usually resort, which 
are found thickly perforated with oblong holes two or three inches 
in depth. The small crabs called fiddlers, tliat burrow in the mud 
at the bottom of inlets, are frequently the prey of the Oyster- 
catcher ; as are muscles, spout-fish, and a variety of other shell- 
fish, and sea insects, with which those shores abound. 
The principal food, however, of this bird, according to Eu- 
ropean writers, and that from which it derives its name, is the 
oyster, which it is said to watch for, and snatch suddenly from the 
shells, whenever it surprises them sufficiently open. In search of 
