144 BULLETIN 133, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



conspicuous, that they have suffered extensively at the hands of gun- 

 ners. On December 15 nearly 100 were noted in a close flock in an 

 indentation on the shore of Lake Epiquen near Carhue, Buenos 

 Aires. On the following day a few pairs seen on partly inundated 

 land on the lake shore seemed to be on their breeding grounds and 

 may have had eggs or young as they ran about with rapidly waving 

 wings and scolding calls. A few were recorded here on December 

 17 and 18. Near Guamini, in this same region, stilts were common 

 from March 3 to 8 in close flocks or scattered bands that fed in 

 shallow pools or bays. These flocks consisted of young and old 

 that apparently had banded together in preparation for migration. 

 Adults were still somewhat anxious about their young, though the 

 latter were fully grown, and scolded sharply with barking calls that 

 were answered by the whistled notes of their offspring. A pair of 

 adults taken were molting the primaries. The birds are similar in 

 appearance and carriage to the black-necked stilt {Himantojni^H mexi- 

 canus). They walk about slowly in mud or shallow water with 

 heads bent in search for food, seldom wading where the water is 

 deep in spite of their extraordinary length of leg. Though ordi- 

 narily inoffensive, they sometimes drive the young about after the 

 latter are fully grown, or may fly at them and force them to lie 

 prostrate to avoid being struck. 



A male in first year plumage with gray crown and brownish gray 

 back, taken September 6, had the bill black; iris orange chrome; 

 tarsus and toes flesh pink, washed with pale quaker drab at joints. 



In a small series there is no difference apparent in birds from 

 Chile, Peru, Paraguay, and Argentina. 



Family HAEMATOPODIDAE 



HAEMATOPUS PALLIATUS Tcmminck 



Haematopus palliatus Temminck, Man. Orn., ed. 2, vol. 2, 1820, p. 532. 

 (South America.) 



Although on the morning of June 16, 1920, as the steamer came 

 in toward the wharf in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro, seven oyster 

 catchers circled past barely above the low waves, I did not have 

 opportunity to observe and watch these birds further until I reached 

 the coast of the Province of Buenos Aires in late October. Two 

 were seen on the mud banks at the mouth of the Rio Ajo below La- 

 valle on October 25, and from November 3 to 7 they were fairly 

 common on the broad sand beach that extends southward for many 

 miles below Cape San Antonio. Here oyster catchers in pairs fed 

 in the shallow sweep of the surf, often where waves of more mo- 

 mentum than usual came nearly to their bodies. The birds walked 

 slowly, with necks drawn in and heads inclined forward, seldom 



