take up a " razor-handle"" or solen, and lash it against the sands until the
shell was broken and the contents swallowed. Now and then they seem
to suck the sea-urchins, driving in the mouth, and introducing their bill
by the aperture, without breaking the shell; again they are seen wading
up to their bodies from one place to another, seizing on shrimps and
other Crustacea, and even swimming for a few yards, should this be
necessary to enable them to remove from one bank to another without
flying. Small crabs, fiddlers, and sea-worms, are also caught by it, the
shells of which in a broken state I have found in its gizzard in greater or
less quantity. Frequently, while on wet sea-beaches, it pats the sand, to
force out the insects; and in one instance I saw an individual run from
the water to the dry sand, with a small flounder in its bill, which it afterwards
devoured.
This bird forms no regular nest, but is contented with scratching the
dry sand above high-water mark, so as to form a slight hollow, in which
it deposits its eggs. On the coast of Labrador, and in the Bay of
Fundy, it lays its eggs on the bare rock. When the eggs are on sand,
it seldom sits on them during the heat of the sun; but in Labrador, it
was found sitting as closely as any other bird. Here, then, is another
instance of the extraordinary difference of habit in the same bird under different
circumstances. It struck me so much that had I not procured a
specimen in Labrador, and another in our Middle Districts, during the
breeding season, and found them on the closest examination to be the
same, I should perhaps have thought the birds different. Everywhere,
however, I observed that this bird is fond of places covered with broken
shells and drifted sea-weeds or grasses, as a place of security for its eggs,
and where, in fact, it is no very easy matter to discover them. The eggs
are two or three, measure two inches and one-eighth in length, by an inch
and a half in breadth, and are of the form of those of a common hen.
They are of a pale cream colour, spotted with irregular marks of brownish
black, and others of a paler tint, pretty equally dispersed all over.
The birds, even when not sitting on them, are so very anxious about them,
that on the least appearance of an enemy, they scream out loudly, and if
you approach the nest, fly over and- around you, although always at a
considerable distance. When you meet with the young, which run as
soon as they are hatched, the old birds manifest the greatest anxiety.
They run before you, or fly around you, with great swiftness, and emit
peculiar notes, which at once induce their little ones to squat among the
sand and broken shells, where, on account of their dull greyish-colour, it
is very difficult to see them unless you pass within a foot or two of them,
when they run off emitting a plaintive note, which renders the parents
doubly angry. Their shape is now almost round, and the streaks of
their back and rump, as well as the curved points of their bills, might induce
you to believe them to be any thing but the young of an Oyster-
Catcher. I have caught some, which I thought were more than a month
old, and yet were unable to fly, although full feathered. They appeared
weakened by their fatness, and were overtaken by running after them on the
sands. There were no parent birds near or in sight of them ; yet I much
doubt if they procured their own food at this period, and have more reason
to believe that, like some other species of birds, they were visited and
supplied with food at particular hours of the day or of the night, as is the
case with Herons and Ibises, for the Oyster-Catcher is scarcely nocturnal.
By the beginning of October these birds return to the south. I saw
them at Labrador until the 11th of August, but cannot say at what period
they leave that country. When wounded while wading or on the shore,
they make for the water, on which they float buoyantly and move with ease.
The flight of the American Oyster-catcher is powerful, swift, elegant
at times, and greatly protracted. While they are on wing, their beauties
are as effectually displayed as those of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
of our woods, the colours of which are somewhat similar. The transparent
white of their wings contrasts with their jetty tips, and is enriched
by the coral hue of the bill, while the beautiful white of their lower parts
has a very pleasing effect. Their loud cries, too, of wheep, wheep, wheeop,
which sound in your ears, are quite different from any you have heard; and
as they perform their various evolutions, all charming in themselves, you
cannot, if unacquainted with the bird, refrain from asking what it is ?
Now wheeling with wonderful impetuosity, they pass within a hundred
yards of you, and suddenly checking their flight return, not low over
the waters as before, but high in the air. Again, they form their ranks
in a broad front, and again, as if suddenly alarmed by the report of a
distant gun, they close pell-mell, and dip towards the sands or the waters.
Shoot one at such a moment, and you may expect to kill another; but
as this is done, the wary birds, as if suddenly become aware of your intentions,
form themselves into a straggling line, and before a minute has
elapsed, far beyond reach, and fading on the view, are the remaining
Oyster-catchers.