OYSTER-CATCHER. 
64 
very active. If pursued they hide their heads in the first 
hole they come to, as if thinking, like the Ostrich, that if 
they cannot see you, you cannot see them. 
Male; weight, about sixteen or seventeen ounces; length, a 
little over one foot four inches, or from that to one foot 
five, or Sir William Jardine says, to one foot seven inches; 
the bill, which is three inches long, is of a deep orange 
yellow colour at the base, and paler towards the tip, which 
is much compressed; iris, crimson red, the eyelids reddish 
orange, below the eye is a small white spot in the autumn 
and summer months. Head, crown, neck on the back and 
sides, in front, and the nape, black, of a glossy velvet ap¬ 
pearance; chin, throat, and the breast above, glossy velvet 
black, the latter below, white; in winter there is a white 
gorget more or less developed on the front of the neck, 
begun to be assumed in the autumn, and worn till the spring. 
Back, above, glossy velvet black, with a reflection of green 
and bluish ash-colour; below, white. 
The wings have the first quill feather about half an inch 
longer than the second, and at the same time the longest in 
the wing—underneath they are white, the axillary plume also 
white; they expand to the width of two feet eight inches; 
greater wing coverts, white on the tips, forming a broad 
bar over the wing; lesser wing coverts, glossy velvet black; 
primaries, dusky black, with part of their inner webs white, 
in the shape of an oblong spot towards the tip; secondaries 
and tertiaries, black, with a reflection of green and bluish 
ash-colour; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white. 
Tail, white on the inner half, black on the outer; upper tail 
coverts, white. Legs and toes, pale purple reddish, deeper 
coloured with the season; claws, dusky black. 
In the winter the plumage is not so clear and bright. 
The male and female are alike. They are said to moult 
both in the spring and autumn. 
The young are at first beautifully mottled over with greyish 
brown down. In their first year’s plumage they have the 
bill yellowish brown, tinged with orange, the back and wing 
coverts margined with brown, and the white is not so pure; 
the feet are greyish white tinged with pink. The white 
gorget is not put on till the second winter. 
Sir William Jardine says that he has seen specimens of a 
dull white or fawn-colour. 
The plate is taken from a design by the Bev. B. P. Alington. 
