26 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Family H^MATOPODID^. 



THE OYSTER-CATCHERS. 



Hxmatopinx Gray, List Gen. Birds, 1840, 65. 



Hxmalopodinx Gray, List Gen. Bu-ds, ed. 2, 1841, 85. 



Hiematopidse Selys, Faune Beige, 1842, 278. 



'^Hxmatopodidx Cassin, in Baird, Rep. Pacific R. R. Surv., ix, 1858, 688, 689 

 (includes Arenariidte). — Coues, Key N. Am. Birds, 1872, 246; 2d ed., 1884) 

 606 (includes Arenariidae). 



=Hsematopodidx Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., i, 1880, 239. — Baird, Brewer, 

 and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Am., i, 1884, 107, 108. — American Ornith- 

 ologists' Union, Check List, 1886, 165; 3d ed., 1910, 132.— Sharpe, Review 

 Rec. Att. Classif. Birds, 1891, 73. — Oberholser, Outl. Classif. N. Am. Birds, 

 1905, 2. 



'^Haematopodidae Carus, Handb. Zool., i, 1868, 337 (includes Arenariidae). 



=Bxmatopodinx Sclater and Salvin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, 143. — Coues, 

 Key N. Am. Birds, 2d ed., 1884, 606. — Stejneger, Standard Nat. Hist., iv, 

 1885, 99, in. text.— Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv, 1896, ix, 90, 105; 

 Hand-list, i, 1899, xv, 147. — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, 

 iii, 1903, 346. 



Very large, heavily-built Charadrii with bill much longer than tar- 

 sus, excessively compressed <listally, much deeper than wide through- 

 out (except at extreme base), deepest in middle or posterior to 

 middle portion, the tip broad (rounded or subtruncate) in lateral 

 profile, the gonys more than twice as long as mandibular rami ; legs 

 and feet very stout, the tarsus covered, all round, with small hexa- 

 gonal scales; hallux entirely absent; toes thick and relatively short, 

 with transverse scutella on distal half only, sometimes confined to 

 terminal phalanges; a web between outer and middle toes, extending 

 as far as end of basal phalanx of the latter, the space between inner 

 and middle toes with a much smaller basal web ; thigh-muscle formula 

 ABXY(as in Charadriidae) ; skull with supra-orbital grooves very large. 



The Hrematopodidae frequent the sea-shores of nearly all parts of 

 the world but are absent from the Polar regions. They feed upon 

 mollusks and other marine life thrown upon the beach by the surf. 



Only about a dozen species and subspecies are known, belonging 

 to a single genus, seven of them being American. 



Genus H^^MATOPUS Linn^us. 



Hxmatopus Linn^us, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, i, 1758, 152; ed. 12, i, 1766, 257. (Type, 

 by monotypy, H. ostralegus Linnaeus.) 



Ostralega Brisson, Orn., v, 1760, 38. (Type, by tautonymy, "Ostralega"= Hx- 

 matopus ostralegus Linnteus.) 



Ostrelaga (emendation) Bonnaterre, Tabl. Encycl. M6th., i, 1791, Ixxxii. 



Ostralegus (emendation) Macgillivray, Man. Brit. Orn., ii, 1842, 58. 



Melanibyx Reichenbach, Handb. Nat. Syst. Vog., 1852, p. xii. (Type, Hxmato- 

 pus moquini Bonaparte.) 



Prohxmatopus"' Mathews, Birds Australia, iii, pt. 1, April 2, 1913, ]2. (Type, by 

 monotypy, Hxmatopus quoyi Brabourne and Chubb.) 



"Ilpo, before -f Hsematopus (al/ia (aijuaT-), l)lood; irovs, foot). (Mathews.) 



