Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/123

Y S Z A 111 OYSTER-CATCHER, a bird s name which does not seem to occur in books until 1731, when Catesby (Nat. Hist. Carolina, i. p. 85) used it for a species which he observed to be abundant on the oyster-banks left bare at low water in the rivers of Carolina, and believed to feed principally upon those molluscs. In 1776 Pennant applied the name to the allied British species, which he and for nearly two hundred years many other English writers had called the "Sea-Pie." The change, in spite of the mis nomer for, whatever may be the case elsewhere, in England the bird does not feed upon oysters met with general approval, and the new name has, at least in books, almost wholly replaced what seems to have been the older one. 1 The Oyster-catcher of Europe is the Ifxmatopus 12 ostralegus of Linnaeus, belonging to the group now called Limicolx, and is generally included in the Family Charadriidx ; though some writers have placed it in one of its own, Hxmatopodidx, chiefly on account of its peculiar bill a long thin wedge, ending in a vertical edge. Its feet also are much more fleshy than are generally seen in the Plover Family. In its strongly-contrasted plumage of black and white, with a coral-coloured bill, the Oyster- catcher is one of the most conspicuous birds of the European coasts, and in many parts is still very common. It is nearly always seen paired, though the pairs collect in prodigious flocks ; and, when these are broken up, its shrill but musical cry of " tu-lup," " tu-lup," somewhat pettishly repeated, helps to draw attention to it. Its wariness, how ever, is very marvellous, and even at the breeding-season, when most birds throw off their shyness, it is not easily approached within ordinary gunshot distance. The hen- bird commonly lays three clay-coloured eggs, blotched with black, in a very slight hollow on the ground, not far from the sea. As incubation goes on the hollow is somewhat deepened, and perhaps some haulm is added to its edge, so that at last a very fair nest is the result. The young, as in all Limicolaz, are at first clothed in down, so mottled in colour as closely to resemble the shingle to which, if they be not hatched upon it, they are almost immediately taken by their parents, and there, on the slightest alarm, they squat close to elude observation. This species occurs on the British coasts (very seldom straying inland) all the year round ; but there is some reason to think that those we have in winter are natives of more northern latitudes, while our home-bred birds leave us. It ranges from Iceland to the shores of the Red Sea, and lives chiefly on marine worms, Crustacea, and such molluscs as it is able to obtain. It is commonly supposed to be capable of prizing limpets from their rock, and of opening the shells of mussels ; but, though undoubtedly it feeds on both, further evidence as to the way in which it procures them is desirable. Mr Harting informs the writer that the bird seems to lay its head sideways on the ground, and then, grasping the limpet s shell close to the rock between the mandibles, use them as scissor-blades to cut off the mollusc from its sticking-place. The Oyster-catcher is not highly esteemed as a bird for the table. Differing from this species in the possession of a longer 1 It seems however very possible, judging from its equivalents in other European languages, such as the Frisian ester visscher, the German Augsterman, Austernfischer, and the like, that the name " Oyster-catcher " may have been not a colonial invention but indigenous to the mother-country, though it had not found its way into print before. The French Huitrier, however, appears to be a word coined by Brisson. " Sea- Pie" has its analogues in the French Pie-de-Mer. the German Meerelster, Seeelster, and so forth. 2 Whether it be the Hasmatopus whose name is found in some editions of Pliny (lib. x. cap. 47) is at best doubtful. Other editions have Himantopus; but Hardouin prefers the former reading. Both words have passed into modern ornithology, the latter as the generic name of the STILT (q.v. ); and some writers have blended the two in the strange and impossible compound Ilasmantopus. bill, in having much less white on its back, in the paler colour of its mantle, and in a few other points, is the ordinary American species, already mentioned, Haimatopus palliatus. Except that its call-note, judging from description, is unlike that of the European bird, the habits of the two seem to be perfectly similar ; and the same may be said indeed of all the other species. The Falkland Islands are frequented by a third, //. leucopus, very similar to the first, but with a black wing-lining and paler legs, while the Australian Region possesses a fourth, //. longirostris, with a very long bill as its name intimates, and no white on its primaries. China, Japan, and possibly eastern Asia in general have an Oyster-catcher which seems to be intermediate between the last and the first. This has received the name of H. osculans ; but doubts have been expressed as to its deserving specific recognition. Then we have a group of species in which the plumage is wholly or almost wholly black, and among them only do we find birds that fulfil the implication of the scientific name of the genus by having feet that may be called blood-red. //. niger, which fre quents both coasts of the northern Pacific, has, it is true, yellow legs, but towards the extremity of South America its place is taken by //. ater, in which they are bright red, and this bird is further remarkable for its laterally com pressed and much upturned bill. The South African H. capensis has also scarlet legs; but in the otherwise very similar bird of Australia and New Zealand, H. unicolor, these members are of a pale brick-colour. (A. N.) OZAKA, or OSAKA, one of the three imperial cities of Japan (Kioto and Tokio or Yedo being the other two), is situated in a plain in the province of Setsu or Sesshiu, measuring about 20 miles from north to south and from 15 to 20 miles east and west, and bounded, except towards the west, where it opens on Idzuminada Bay, by hills of considerable height. It lies on both sides of the Yodogawa, or rather of its headwater the Aji (the outlet of Lake Biwa), and is so intersected by river-branches and canals as to suggest a comparison with Venice or Stockholm. River steamers ply between Ozaka and its port Hiogo or Kobe, and a railway between the two places, opened in 1873, has since been extended to Kioto and farther. The streets are not very broad, but for the most part they are regular and well kept ; the houses, about 20 or 25 feet in height, are all built of wood. Shin-sal Bashi Suji, the principal thoroughfare, leads from Kitahama, the district lying on the south side of the Tosabori, to the iron suspen sion bridge (Shin-sai Bashi) over the Dotom-bori. The foreign settlement is at Kawaguchi at the junction of the Shirinashi-gawa and the Aji-Kawa, It is almost deserted by the foreign merchants, who prefer to have their establishments at Kobe, but it is the seat of a number of European mission stations. Though the Buddhist temples of Ozaka number 1380 and the Shinto temples 538, few of them are of much note. The Buddhistic Tennoji, founded by Shotoku Tai-shi, and restored in 1664, covers an immense area at the south-east corner of the city, and has a fine pagoda from which an admirable view of the country is obtained. Two other Buddhist temples, which form a conspicuous object in the heart of the city, are occupied, one as a Government hospital and the other as a Government school. The principal secular buildings are the castle, the mint, and the arsenal. The castle was founded in 1584 by Hideyoshi; the enclosed palace, "probably the finest building Japan ever saw," survived the capture of the castle by lyeyasu, and in 1867 and 1878 witnessed the reception of the foreign legations by the Tokugawa shoguns ; but in the latter year it was fired by the Tokugawa party. Externally the whole castle is protected by a double enceinte of high and massive walls and broad moats the outer moat from 80 to 120 yards across and