30 BULLETIN 50^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



H^MATOPUS OSTRALEGUS OSTRALEGUS Linn^us. 



OYSTER-CATCHER. 



Adults (sexes alike). — Head, neck, chest, wings, and terminal por- 

 tion'^of tail plain black, the head and neck tinged with slaty in certain 

 lights, the wings and tail slightly brownish; lower back, rump, upper 

 tail-coverts, basal portion of tail, greater wing-coverts, and under 

 parts of body mimaculate white; throat sometimes with a white 

 transverse band, and, more rarely, there are other white markings 

 about the head,^ bill (in life) ''vermilion, tinged with yellow as far 

 as the end of the nasal groove, the attenuated part dull yellow;"^ 

 iris crimson ; naked eyelids vermilion red ; legs and feet ' 'pale lake or 

 purpUsh red. " '^ 



Young. — Smiilar to adults but the darker portions more brownish, 

 the feathers of back, wings, etc., with rusty margins, and bill dull 

 orange-red or brownish. 



Downy young. — "Clothed with down of a sandy-gray color, not 

 much mottled with black, of which two lines run down each side of 

 the back, with a single narrow line dowm the rump to the tail, and a 

 lateral stripe along the lower flanks; the head has some irregidar black 

 stripes and patches; throat dusky black; remainder of under surface 

 of body white, as also the edge of the wmg; thighs dusky blackish."" 



Adult male. ~~Wmg, 250-267 (256.9); tail, 101-111 (107); cuhnen, 

 62.5-78 (69.8); greatest depth of bill, 9-11 (10); tarsus, 43.5-53.5 

 (48.1) : middle toe, 32-37 (34.7).;^ 



Europe and western and central Asia, east to Yenesai River, Siberia; 

 breeding from Arctic Circle to shores of temperate Europe, and Black 

 and Caspian Seas; in winter southward to northern and middle Africa, 

 shores of Red Sea, and Persian Gulf, India, northern Ceylon, etc. Oc- 

 casional in southern Greenland (Jidianehaab ; Godthaab; Nenortalik). 



[Hsematopus] ostralegus Linn^us, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, i, 1758, 152 ("Oedlandiae& 

 Gotlandiae"); ed. 12, i, 17G6, 257.— Brunnich, Orn. Bor., 17G4, 57.— Gmelin, 

 Syst. Nat., i, pt. ii, 1789, 694.— Latham, Index Orn., ii, 1790, 752.— Turton, 

 Syst. Nat., i, 1806, 419.— Gray, Hand-list, iii, 1871, 21, no. 10057.— Sharpe, 

 Hand-list, i, 1899, 147.— Forbes and Robinson, Bull. Liverp. Mus., ii, no. 

 2, 1899, 62. 



Hsematopus « ostralegus Temminck, Cat. Syst., 1807, 175; Man. d'Om., ii, 1820, 

 531.— ViEiLLOT, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., xv. 1817, 408, part.— Roux, Orn. 

 Prov., 1825, pi. 208.— Bonaparte, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., v. 1825, 106 

 (crit.); Ann. Lye. N. Y., ii, 1826, 300; Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, 46 



a Dresser (Birds of Europe, vii, 1877, 568) considers these specimens with white 

 throat-band as representing the winter plumage; but Macgillivray (Hist. Brit. Birds, 

 iv, 155) asserts that they are of a purely individual character, and may be found in 

 specimens taken at any season. • 



b Macgillivray, Hist. Brit. Birds, iv, 1852, 154. 



c Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv, 1896, 110. 



«* Seven specimens. (No adult females examined.) 



« Including Haematopus. 



