RECURVIROSTRIDM: AVOCETS. STILTS. 



789 



neck ; thoiigli some allowance in either case must be made for normal variation from the minute- 

 ness of my description.) Entire under parts from the breast pure white, including lining (jf 

 wings — where, however, a few dusky feathers commonly show along the edge. Length 17. UO- 

 21.00; extent 30.00-36.00; wing 10.00 or more; tail 4.00 or more; tarsus 2.00 or more; mid- 

 dle toe and claw uud(!r 2.00. Bill 3 or 4 inches long, varying in shape with almost every 

 specimen, with wear and tear under the rough usage to which it is subjected ; ordinarily both 

 mandibles truncated ; often tlie lower, sometimes both, acute. Bills worn thinnest and most 

 like a knife-blade toward the end are often bent sideways, as if i'vom habitual use of them in a 

 particular direction. Young: Head and neck not black, but rather brown, or black mixed 

 with brown ; feathers of mantle with butf edges ; bill dull colored. Downy young: tawny gray 

 above, witli dark mottling; postocular and lateral dorsal stripes of black ; under parts white. 

 Eggs 2 or 3, not known to be ever 4, buff of varying shade, spotted irregularly with blackish, 

 dark brown, and neutral tints; size about 2.20 X l-o5. North, Central, and Soutli America, 

 almost entirely coastwise, and chiefly along Atlantic side but also on Pacific to Mexico. Mi- 

 gratory all along, wintering southerly, N. regularly only to the Middle States, casually to 

 Mass. and Maine, breeding in abundanct; but irregularly at different points. There are well- 

 known breeding resorts along the S. Atlantic coast. 



H. fra'zari. (To M. Abbott Frazar, of Boston.) Frazar's Oyster-CATCHER. Resem- 

 bling H. palliatus and H. galapagensis ; differs from both in the broad zone of mottled black 

 and white feathers across breast ; from H. palliatus in stouter and more depressed bill, little 

 or no white on eyelids, darker back and wings, more or less varied upper tail-coverts, and some 

 other respects; from H. galapafjensls in ratlier shorter bill, brown instead of black mantle, 

 dark markings on under tail-coverts, and greater amount of wliite on under primary coverts. 

 Lower California, on both coasts; 

 southern California. Brewster, 

 Auk, Jan. 1888, p. 84 ; CofES, 

 Key, 4th ed. 1890, p. 904 ; A. 0. U. 

 Lis"t.2d ed. 1895, No. 286.1. 

 H. bach'inani. (To Rev. John 

 Baclinian. Fig. 540.) Black 



Oy.STER - CATCHER. liACIIMAN'S 



Oy.ster-catcher. Size an<l sliape 

 of H. palliatus. Head and neck 

 the same, but no white on eyelids, 

 and no white anywhere ; rest of 

 plumage dark smoky-brown, black- 

 ening on wing-quills and tail-featb- 

 ers. Edges of eyelids and most of ^°- ^-Bl-k Oyster-catcher. (L. A. Fuerte..) 



bill vermilion, feet pale Hesh-C(dor; iris yellow. Young browner. Eggs 2-3. 2.20 X 1.50, 

 buff or drab, finely speckled, or sparsely spotted with blackish and purplish-gray. Pacific coast 

 of the r. S. and British Columbia, from the Aleutian Islands to Lower California. //. uiger 

 I'Ai.i.. of most authors, and all earlier editions of the Key ; //. hnchmani Am. Oru. Biogr. v, 

 1839, p. 245, pi. 427; A. 0. V. Lists, 1st and 2.1 eds. 1886 and 1895, No. 287. 



Family RECURVIROSTRIDJE : Avocets. Stilts. 



Another small family, charactrrizrd by extrem.' l.Migtli of slender l.-gs, and extreme Avw- 

 derness of long acute bill, wliich is either straight or curved upward. Recurrirostra \» 4-t«H«d 

 and fnll-webl)e.l ; bill decidedly recmv.d, llattened, and tapers to a nee.lle-like point : b.Kly 



