in ornithology; a genus of birds, of the order of grallae. It has a long compressed bill, with the end cuneated; the nostrils are linear, and the feet have only three toes. There is but one species, the oystercatcher, sea-pie, or oyster-catcher. They are very common on most of our coasts; feeding on marine insects, oysters, limpets, &c. Their bills, which are compressed sideways, and end obtusely, are very fit instruments to infiniate between the limpet and the rock to which these shells adhere; which they do with great dexterity to get at the fish. On the coast of France, where the tides recede so far as to leave the beds of oysters bare, these birds feed on them, forcing the shells open with their bills. They keep in summer-time in pairs, laying their eggs... HOG

Hoffman on the bare ground: they lay four of a whitish-brown hue, thinly spotted and striped with black; and when any one approaches their young, they make a loud and shrill noise. In winter they assemble in vast flocks, and are very wild. The head, neck, capulars, and coverts of the wings of this bird, are of a fine black; in some the neck is marked with white; the wings dusky, with a broad transverse band of white; the bill three inches long, and of a rich orange colour.