316 BULLETIN 14 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



(Pearl Island) ; Yucatan (Cozumel Island and Merida) ; and Texas 

 (Brownsville). 



Casual records. — The American oyster-catcher has on a few occa- 

 sions been directed north of its normal range. Among these occur- 

 rences are: New York, a specimen in New York Harbor, May 28, 

 1877, one about March 9, 1880, at Ponquogue, and one at Greenport, 

 June 2, 1882; Massachusetts, two in August, 1899, at Chatham, one 

 in April, 1885, at Monomoy Island, two seen September 10, 1924, at 

 Eastham, a pair taken in 1837, at Marshfield, and one in Boston har- 

 bor, killed prior to 1814; Maine, reported by Audubon as occurring 

 at Portland but this record is considered doubtful; New Brunswick, 

 a specimen has been reported upon the authority of Boardman 

 (Baird, Brewer, and Kidgway, 1884) as taken at Grand Manan. This 

 last is considered unsatisfactory as being indefinite, while Audubon's 

 statement that it bred in Labrador is probably an error. 



Egg dates. — Virginia : 37 records, April 26 to July 9 ; 19 records, 

 May 21 to June 19. South Carolina and Georgia : 25 records, March 

 27 to June 25 ; 13 records, May 5 to 23. Texas : 8 records, March 29 

 to May 5. 



HAEMATOPUS PALLIATUS FRAZARI Brewster 

 FRAZAR OYSTER CATCHER 



HABITS 



It now seems to be generally recognized that this Lower California 

 oyster catcher is a subspecies of palliatus., although William Brew- 

 ster (1902) originally described it as a full species and named it in 

 honor of the veteran collector, M. Abbott Frazar. Dr. Robert Cush- 

 man Murphy (1925) has recently reviewed this group, in which he 

 has designated six subspecies of palUatus., inhabiting various parts 

 of North and South America. To frazari he assigns the following 

 limited range : 



Pacific and Gulf coasts of Lower California and adjacent parts of Mexico, 

 including the islands ; formerly northward in Ventura County, Calif. ; southward 

 along the west coast of Mexico to Tepic a ad Jalisco, and at least occasionally 

 to Guerrero. 



Ridgway lists specimens from Sihutanejo and Acapulco, Guerrero. Contrary 

 to former opinion, however, this race is principally confined to the zone of 

 generally arid shores centering about the peninsula and gulf of Lower Cali- 

 fornia. Its range approaches or meets that of H. p. palUatus on the more trop^ 

 ical coast farther south, probably at a point not far from the Isthmus of 

 Tehuantepec. 



He says of the characters of this race : 



The subspecific characters of frazari, which include darker coloration of the 

 brown upper parts than in palliatus, heavy mottling on the breast along the 



