PLOVERS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES 109 



bird remarkable for its jet-black body colouring, 

 crimson legs, and orange-red bill, is another bird 

 which, although included in the sub-family of 

 Hcemato])odi7ice, or oyster-catchers, is at the same 

 time a true member of the plover group. In South 

 Africa this handsome shore bird is to be found along 

 the coast, on either side of the continent, right 

 away towards the equator. Many of the smaller 

 plovers, when shot by the colonist, are, for want of 

 more exact information, usually vaguely classed as 

 " sand-pipers," but the handsome black South 

 African oyster-catcher can be at once and easily 

 identified. 



Very few collectors in South Africa have hitherto 

 had the time or opportunity for procuring and 

 examining systematically the various members of 

 this extremely interesting family, Layard and 

 Andersson have done much, although even they have 

 been a good deal circumscribed in their investiga- 

 tions. It can scarcely be doubted that further re- 

 search among the innumerable birds of the South 

 African interior, and the remote parts of the coast- 

 line, will increase very considerably our knowledge 

 of the habits of this group, and that v/ithin the 

 next twenty years species hitherto unknown or un- 

 remarked will be added to the already considerable 

 list of the plovers of South Africa. 



