THE OYSTER CATCHER. l8l 



I. THE OYSTER-CATCHER. H^:MAT0PUS OSTRALEGUS. 



Hcematopus ostralegus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 257 (1766); 

 Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 152 (1852); Dresser, B. Eur. 

 vii. p. 567, pi. 533 (1877) ; B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 162 

 (1883) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 294 (1883) ; 

 Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 4 (1885); Saunders, Man. 

 Brit. B. p. 543 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part 

 xii. (1890) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 107 

 (1896). 



{Plate LXXXI.) 



Adult Male. — General colour above glossy black ; lower back, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts white; wing-coverts black, the 

 bastard-wing feathers and the median series with white tips, 

 the greater coverts pure white, with only a little blackish 

 concealed near the base; primaries black, with the greater 

 part of the inner web white, except near the ends and for some 

 distance parallel to the shaft, the latter with a sub-terminal 

 white streak, widening into a broad white streak on the inner 

 primaries, the white extending on to the outer web ; second- 

 aries pure white with black tips, the central ones white, the 

 long inner ones black ; tail white, with the terminal third 

 black, forming a broad band ; head all round with the entire 

 throat black ; under the eye a white spot; remainder of under 

 surface of body, from the lower throat downwards, pure white ; 

 the feathers of the fore-neck which adjoin the black throat 

 being half white and half black, to correspond with the 

 adjacent plumage; under wing-coverts and axillaries white; 

 bill vermilion, tinged with yellow as far as the end of the 

 nasal groove, the attenuated part dull yellow ; feet pale lake or 

 purplish-red ; edges of the eyelids vermilion ; iris crimson. 

 Total length, 16 inches; culmen, 2*9; wing, 7*9; tail, 3'9 ; 

 tarsus, 1-95. 



Adult Female. — Similar to the male in plumage. Total length, 

 17 inches; culmen, y^ i wing, ici ; tail, 4; tarsus, 2. 



Young. — Browner on the back than the adults, and with 

 more or less sandy-brown vermiculations and margins to the 

 ends of the feathers ; across the middle of the throat a broad 

 band of white ; quills with a larger expanse of white, the white 

 on the outer web of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth quills 



