7S 



PLOVER GROUP 



As this bird derives one of its English names from its colouring, 

 and the other from its habits, so it takes its first scientific name from 

 the blood -red colour of its legs, and the second from its reputed 

 fondness for oysters. The pied plumage and brilliant colouring of 

 the beak and legs are, indeed, amply sufficient to distinguish the sea- 

 pie, of which the male measures i6 and the female 17 inches in 

 length, from all other birds, so that the following particulars arc 

 almost superfluous. 



In the plumage of both se.xes the upper-parts are mostly black, 

 with the lower portion of the back, the tips of the middle wing- 



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coverts, and the whole of the greater coverts, and the basal two-thirds 

 of the tail-feathers white, as are all the under-parts, from the lower 

 portion of the neck backwards ; the beak being vermilion with a 

 yellowish tip, the legs jjink, and the iris of the c)'c crimson. What 

 may be the precise adaptive purpose, if any, of this striking type of 

 colouring has not yet been ascertained. In young birds in tiicir first 

 plumage the feathers of the back and wings have brown margins ; and 

 the chick is sand)' grey, mottled with black above, and wholly white 

 below, the back displaying on each side a pair of dark stripes which 

 coalesce posteriori}-. 



The loud clear whistling cry often indicates the near presence of an 

 oyster-catcher when the bird itself is hidden from view ; rocks between 



