788 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMICOL^E- 



H. ostri'legus. (Gr. oa-rptov. ostreon, Lat. ostrcea, an oyster ; Xfytip, lerjein, Lnt. legere, to 

 gather, pick out. Fig. 539.) European Oyster-catcher (oyster-opener would be a bet- 

 ter name, as oysters do not run fast. The word has not been traced back of Catesby, 1731, 

 but has equivalents in several other languages, as French huitrier, Brisson, 1760, literally 



;,\. 





C WtNl^' 



Fig. 539. — European Oyster-catcher, \ nat. size. (From Brelim.) 



"oysterer,'' German austermann or misternfischer , Frisian oestemsscJier, etc. The Linni«an 

 form of the speciiic name ostralegus is used by most authors, including so scholarly a writer as 

 Professor Newton ; but os^?"i7e<7i«s is classic). Sea Pie. Olive (for Olave). Similar to the 

 next to be described. Upper parts glossy-black, like head and neck. Quills black, broadly 

 margined with white on inner webs excepting toward end, also with isolated white shafts and 

 spaces near end. Back below interscapulars, rump, greater wing-coverts, and upper tail- 

 coverts entirely white, as well as bases of tail-feathers. Length about 16.00; bill about 3.00; 

 wing 9..50-10.00; tail 4.50; tarsus 2.00. Europe, Asia, Africa; N. Am. as occurring in 

 Greenland. 



H. pallia'tus. (Lat. p«Hmi«s, wearing the paZK«m, a cloak.) American Oyster-catcher. 

 Mantled Oystee-catcher. Brown-backed Oyster-catcher. Adult $ 9 : Bill ver- 

 milion or coral-red, changing to yellow at end. Feet pale purplish flesh-color, drying dingy 

 yellowish. Eyes and ring around them red or orange. Whole head and neck all around glossy- 

 black, frequently overcast with an ashy or glaucous shade. Back and wing-coverts smoky- 

 brown — the contrast witli head and neck decided. Rump and central field of upper tail-coverts 

 like back (not white) ; lateral and longest central coverts white. Tail-feathers white at base 

 for nearly the space covered by coverts, on lateral feathers rather farther : then like back, black- 

 ening at ends. Long inner secondaries like back ; next few secondaries pure white ; rest gain- 

 ing dark color in increasing amount; white of secondaries forming with the long white tips of 

 greater coverts a conspicuous broad oblique white bar. Primaries dusky, blackening toward 

 end, touched with white at bases of inner webs of longer ones, with white on outer webs of shf)rt 

 inner ones, but no isolated white subterminal spaces. (Thus much less while on back, rump, 

 wings, and tail than in ostrilegus, besides the difference in color of mantle from that of head and 



