HMMATOPODID.E: OYSTER-CATCHERS: SEA PIES. 787 



tipped feathers iuto vvliite of under parts. White lower Lack, rump, and upper tail-coverts, 

 with black central field of the latter, as in interpres; black and white of wings substantially the 

 same. A white loral spot, and indication of the white of head and neck of interpres in white 

 speckling. Head, neck, and chest of winter plumage uniform sooty. Young like winter adults, 

 but head grayer and feathers of back with buflF edgings. Size about as in interpres. Eggs 

 similar. Pacific and Arctic coast of N. Am., from Lower California to Point Barrow, breeding 

 S. to British Columbia; common. 



Family H^MATOPODID^ : Oyster-catchers ; Sea Pies. 



A small but remarkable family, of one genus and about VI species, whose structure and 

 affinities have been much discussed. Elimination of the unconformable genus Arenaria, which 

 has usually been placed under Hcematopodidcc, as type of a special subfamily, leaves the family 

 susceptible of much better definition ; and this becomes the same as that of the genus Heema- 

 iopus (see below). The Oyster-catchers are large birds for their order, of very striking ap- 

 pearance in life, with their sharply contrasted masses of color, or whoUy sombre jdumage, set 

 off by usually bright-colored feet, and particularly by the richly painted and strangely shaped 

 liill, — whose singularity of form almost equals that of the Scissor-bill or Skimmer. It looks 

 like a clumsy instrument, but is efficient in prying open the shells of bivalve mollusks, as well 

 as in cutting off the attachment of limpets and barnacles to rocks. 



HiEMA'TOPUS. (Or. a[yi.aT(mo\)i , haimatopous, red-footed; ai/xa, haima, blood, noiis, pons, 

 foot.) Oystkr-catchers. No hind toe. Front toes with basal webbing, conspicuous be- 

 tween middle and outer, broadly fringed with membrane continuous with webs to claws, reticu- 

 late on top, with a few scutelUe 

 near their ends. Tarsus shorter 

 than bill, longer than middle 

 toe and claw, entirely reticulate, 

 the plates in front enlarged and 

 quite regularly hexagonal. Ti- 

 biae brietiy bare below. Legs 

 as a whole very stout, coarse 

 and rough, and light-colored. 

 Wings long, pointed; 1st and 

 ■2d quills subequal and longest. Tail short, square, scarcely or not half as long as wing. Bill 

 peculiar — hard, straight, or deflected sideways, longer than tarsus, twice as long as head, 

 constricted near base, much compressed, almost like a knife-blade toward end, and truncate like 

 a Woodpecker's (Fig. 538). Nasal groove very short, broad, and shallow; groovinn of h)wor 

 mandible .slight; interrainal space very short, scarcely ^ the length of long ascending gonys. 

 No-strils remote from feathers, linear, close to commissural edge of bill. Size large. Sexes 

 similar. Eggs 2-3, buff, drab, or olivaceous, fully markeil with spots of different ilark tints. 

 The species inhabit the sea-coasts of most countries. Our four species illustrate the two groups, 

 in one of which the c<jlors are pied in large contrasted areas, in tho other uniformly fuliginous. 

 Among e.xotic species of the former may be named //. oscxlans of Asia, If. hnffirostri.s t»f 

 Australia, //. leucopus, and //. (jnhipiifiensvi of South America; while the dark-bodied binls 

 are II. loiiculor nf Australia and New Zealand, //. C(i])ensi.'< (or moquini) of Africa, and //. ater 

 of South America, in wliidi the bill r.'aclirs a climax in singularity. 



Annhjfu of Sixcirs. 



Hi'.iil, nock, and back Klossy-blnck : ruiiip ami iM-lly wliiU- i>7«i* 



Hi'a<i ami neck RloHHy-black ; back ami riinip BHioky brown ; belly wliiti' .i<i/i« «iid/rai«ir« 



Head and neck gloB»y-black ; back and belly smoky-brown ... 6arAaMiMi 



Fio. 538. —Bill of Oyster-catcher, nat. size. (Ad. nat. del. E. C.) 



