Oyster-catchers.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20274, 7 April 1934, Page 12

Oyster-catchers.

Nature Notes.

By James Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S.

QYSTER-CATCHERS, in greenish-black plumage, and with crimson bills, legs and eyes, ornament the New Brighton Beach. They are seen at their best when a flock rises from the sand and flies to fresh supplies of pipis. White bands on the wings and white feathers over the tails, in the rapid beating of the wings, form a white W.

If the sunlight touches the white undersurface, it gleams like silver. There is no soaring, but the flight is graceful, much more graceful than the flight of seagulls. It diverts attention from anything else in the landscape. A flock does not rise high It straggles out into a long line. On a fine day, this may be easily traced against a clear blue sky. even when the oystercatchers have gone a fairly long way. After the flocks have departed, pipis they leave on the sand show’ that the long bills, wedge-shaped, dig the shellfish out of their sandy beds, and force open the two valves. The mollusc inside then is taken and swallowed. In a few cases, the sides of a shell are broken by powerful thrusts of a bill used like a pickaxe. Two or three black-backed seagulls often accompany each flock of oyster-catchers. The seagulls are hangers-on. waiting to take what the oyster-catchers leave, and playing an ignoble game. Oyster-catchers do not catch oysters. Possibly, no oyster-catcher on the whole coastline of New Zealand has tasted an oyster. They were first called oystercatchers by early navigators in these parts because thgy resemble, and are closely related to, birds of the same name in the Old Country. Some 150 years ago, these were called sea-pie. An eminent English naturalist called them oyster-catchers, and the new name quickly and completely superseded the old one. The misnomer was carried to Australia and New Zealafid

A suggestion has been made that sea-pie should be retained, but it is too late to make a change. The oyster-catcher will remain an oyster-catcher, although most members of the species may never see an oyster, and are content to live on pipis, crabs and other creatures on the seashore. They are sometimes called pied oystercatchers in New Zealand, to distinguish them from their relatives, the black oystercatchers, whose other name is redbill.