FRAZAR OYSTER CATCHER 317 



junction of white and black plumage, longer wing and tail (?), and smaller 

 bill and feet, are given fully by Ridgway. Tlie latter makes *no mention, how- 

 ever, of the practical elimination of the white blotching of the primaries, a 

 character which this oyster catcher shares with other western races. In most 

 specimens the white spots are wholly lacking, but a few show obsolescent white 

 or mottled markings of the conventional pattern on the eighth or ninth from 

 the outermost quill. It is interesting to note that the mottling of the breast, 

 which is so strongly typical of this race, appears to be carried by a genetic 

 factor deeply rooted in the species as a whole. Scarcely any large series of 

 H. p. palliatus, indeed, lacks one or more birds of this type. In its maximum 

 expression, however, when the whole breast, sides, flanks, and under tail coverts 

 are heavily blotched, the character is peculiar to frazari. 



W. Leon Dawson (1923) says, in explanation of its disappearance 

 from California: 



By reason of its conspicuous coloration, as well as its excessive noisiness, 

 the Frazar oyster catcher has suffered a fatal prominence. Its former appear- 

 ances on the Channel Islands (as far north as Ventura County) were concluded 

 by an early martyrdom, and the species is rare even in its primitive fortresses 

 on Los Coronados Islands. 



Nesting. — Being more permanently resident than even its eastern 

 relative, the Frazar oyster catcher has no migrations, except its late 

 summer wanderings, and remains on its breeding range throughout 

 the year. As to the nesting habits of this bird at Scammons Lagoon, 

 Lower California, Griffing Bancroft (1927) writes: 



They climb up on the shell banks which are the back stops of the beaches 

 and there build their nests. The shell banks are usually a yard or two above 

 high-water mark ; they are flat and quite narrow and often have fingerlike 

 projections of 50 yanls or so on the same level, running toward the east. 

 Typically, all these higher flats are composed of nothing but shell, largely 

 unbroken and of a size which may be judged in the accompanying illustration. 

 Sand and small impurities have been garnered by the wind. The oyster catcher 

 likes to build her nest where she has an unobstructed view in all directions, 

 securing to herself the opportunity of slipping of£ unobtrusively at the approach 

 of an enemy. But she is a stupid bird and is easily satisfied with a makeshift 

 which seems to her to accomplish her purpose but in reality does not do so 

 at all. So on some of the earthen islands we find her nesting on little mounds, 

 from which, it is true, she can see, but to only a matter of a few feet. 



In the Gulf of California the favorite site for an oyster catcher is the end 

 of the rather long spits of cobblestones. These are so nearly level that a sitting 

 bird has an unobstructed view for a hundred yards. There she builds a nest 

 of fine hard material — small pebbles and bits of shell. And as she can not 

 have broken the larger stones that were originally on the site she must have 

 removed them. I use the analogy for Scammons. Instead of breaking the 

 shells with her powerful bill she probably pulls them out of the way until she 

 has a flat circle about 10 inches across. This clearing she lines as neatly as 

 tile work, and on them deposits her eggs, one, two, or three. The breeding 

 season seems quite long, as we found both well-developed young and fresh eggs. 

 I have observed parents with their young long after the latter had taken wing, 

 and so feel sure that the oyster catchers raise but one brood a year. 



