110 THE PIED 0 YSTER-CATCHEK. 
shore, with considerable mortification, and the total destruc- 
tion of the contents of my powderhorn. 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 remarkably narrowed 
near the base where the nostrils are placed, probably that 
it may work with more freedom in the sand. This instru- 
ment, for two-thirds of its length towards 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 tipped 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, 
