26 4 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeares Time. 
evident from sea-pyes being included in the bill of fare 
on state occasions. An entry occurs in the Northumber¬ 
land Household Booh, “ Item, see-pyes for my lorde at 
princypall feastes and none other tyme.” 
Mr. Stevenson considers the name oyster-catcher a 
misnomer for this bird, as it chiefly lives on limpets, 
•mussels, and whelks, which it strikes off the rock with its 
<£ blunt-pointed, flat-sided beak, hammer and chisel in one ” 
(Birds of Norfolk, 1866, vol. ii. p. 124). \V illiam Browne 
gives a quaint description of the mode in which a shore 
bird obtains its prey. He does not mention any name, 
but his description can hardly apply to any other species 
than the oyster-catcher :— 
“ On the sand she spyes, 
A busie bird, that to and fro still Ayes, 
Till pitching where a hatefull oyster lay, 
Opening his close jawes, closer none than they 
Unlesse the griping fist, or cherry lips 
Of happy lovers in their melting sips. 
Since the decreasing waves had left him there, 
He gapes for thirst, yet meetes with nought but ayre, 
And that so liote, ere the returning tyde 
He in his shell is likely to he fride; 
The wary bird, a prittie pibble takes, 
And claps it ’twixt the two pearle-liiding flakes 
Of the broad-yawning oyster, and she then 
Securely pickes the fish out, as some men 
A tricke of policie thrust ’tweene two friends, 
Sever their powres, and his intention ends.” 
(Britannia? s Pastorals, book ii. song iii.) 
“ The big-bon’d Bustard then, whose body bears that size, 
That he against the wind must run, e’er he can rise” 
(Drayton, PolyoTbion, song xxv.), 
must have been the most conspicuous inhabitant of corn 
Bustard anc ^ P as ^ ure l anc ^ s * As late as Sir Thomas 
Browne’s time (1660),it was “not unfrequent 
in the champian and fieldy part of the country.” 
The large dimensions of the bustard, its habit of 
