OYSTER-CATCHER, or MUSSEL-PICKER. A long-b„ed shore-bird of the stilt family, hav ing a long. hard, wedge-pointed bill. One spe cies inhabits the northern part of the Old World, and another North America, but the term is occasionally extended to other related forms. The common one in the United States (Hama /opus palliates) is from 18 to 20 inches long, smoky brown above, with head and neck black, and white beneath. It. is found on both coasts of both merican continents, but rarely occurs In England oyster culture is practically along the same lines as in the United States. Shells are used to collect the spat. and seed-oysters are planted in favorable places, notably on the bot toms controlled by the Whitstable Company, a cotiperative corporation. On the Continent the methods are more elaborate, the low price of labor and the high price of oysters, as well as the restriction of the area upon which they can he grown, tending to encourage an intensive sys tem of culture. Tiles and faseines are generally
used as spat-collectors, and especially in Hol land and France a system of ponds or 'claires' is used for growing and fattening. Japanese methods somewhat resemble those of France and Holland in the recognition of a distinction be north of New Jersey. It feeds on oysters, clams, and other mollusks, and breeds freely on the coast of Virginia. On the Pacific coast occurs au oystercatcher (llamatopus Bachmani) which has no white in its plumage. Both of these feed largely on worms, crustaceans. and the like, as well as on mollusks. Time European species (Ihrtnalopus ostralrgus) is similar in all respects, and is known in Great Britain (where it breeds numerously on all sandy coasts) as 'sea lie,' on account of its handsomely variegated black and white plumage, resembling, that of toe magpie. Consult Newton. Dictionary of girds (London and New York, 1893.96I.