Hem ato pus. BIRDS. PRESSIROSTRES. 115 



Gen. LXXVII. PLEMATOPUS. Ovster-catcheii. — 

 Bill much longer than the head, straight, compressed. 

 Toes flat below. The first quill longest. 



167. H. Ostralegus. Common Oyster-catcher. — Bill, hi- 

 des, and margin of the eye-lids, scarlet. 



H. Bellonii, Will. Orn. 220. Sibb. Scot. 19 H. ost. Linn. Syst. i. 



257. Penn. Brit. Zool. ii. 482. Temm. Orn. ii. 531 £, Sea Pie, Tir- 



ma, Trillechan ; 2V, Chalder, Skeldrake. — Common on the sea-shore. 

 Length 17, breadth 32 inches ; weight 16 ounces. Bill 3 inches long; legs 

 reddish ; claws hooked, hollow and black. Head, neck, upper part of the back, 

 scapulars, and upper wing-covers, black ; lower part of the back, rump, great- 

 er wing-covers, and belly, white. Quills black, with white on the inner webs. 

 Tail black at the tip, white at the base. In winter there is a white crescent 



on the throat, and a white spot under the eye. Female like the male Nest, 



of a few lichens, on rocks or gravel. Eggs 2, olive-brown, blotched with 

 black — In the young the black is dusky ; the feathers with brownish margins. 

 — Feeds on shell-fish, which it detaches and penetrates with its stout bill. 

 Though usually considered as a shore bird, I have observed it breeding on 

 the islands in the Tummel at Moulincarn, between Dunkeld and Blair 

 Athol. 



Gen. LXXVIII. OTIS. Bustard.— Bill about the length 

 of the head, incurvated. Nostrils exposed. The third 

 quill the longest. 



168. O. Tarda. Great Bustard. — Bill compressed at the 

 base. Head and neck ash-coloured. 



Will. Orn. 129. Sibb. Scot. 16. Linn. Syst. i. 2G4. Penn. Brit. Zool. i. 

 284. Temm. Orn. ii. 506 — Resident in Norfolk. 



Length 4, breadth 9 feet ; weight 25 pounds. Bill greyish-white ; legs 

 black, irides reddish-brown. A tuft of long feathers on each side of the lower 

 mandible. Above, yellowish-red, with black rays: beneath, white. Quills 

 black, tipped with white. Tail of 20 feathers, ferruginous, barred with black ; 

 the outer ones nearly white. Furnished with a gular pouch for holding wa- 

 ter. Female less ; destitute of the long moustaches and gular pouch Nest 



on the bare ground — Eggs 2, olive-brown, blotched with rusty and grey 

 spots. Young buff-coloured, barred with black above — Feeds on green corn, 

 the tops of turnips, and clover. Greatly reduced in its geographical distri- 

 bution, by having been long persecuted by the sportsman. In England it is 

 now almost confined to Norfolk. In Scotland it seems to have been found in 

 the days of Boece : Sibbald, however, seems to view it as rare in his day; and it 

 is now reduced to the rank of a straggler. One was shot in 1803, in Murray- 

 shire by William Young, Esq. of Boroughhead. 



STRAGGLER. 



0. Tetrax. Little Bustard — Temm. Orn. ii. 507 This species, which is only 



about 16 inches in length, has occurred in England five or six times, as no- 

 ticed in the works of Montagu, Bewick, and Selby. It is chiefly a native of 

 southern and eastern Europe. 



