DIBECTOUY TO BIKDS OF KASTEKX NORTH AMEJaCA 



97 



G. Oyster-Catchers. Haematopoidae. 

 Large birds, black and white or wholly black, with long 

 strongly compressed bills bright red in color, short legs 

 wholly covered with irregular scales, with three unwebbed 

 toes ; wings folding at tip of slightly rounded tail. Sexes, 

 similar, fig. 112. 



a. Oyster-Catchers. Haematopus. 

 Characters as above. 



1. AMEEICAX OYSTER-CATCHER, II. palt.iatus. 

 19.00; bill, 3.25; head and neck all around, sooty black; up- 

 per parts, slaty-brown ; large patch on wing, upper tail cov- 

 erts, and beneath, white; bill and eyelids, carmine; feet, 

 pale pink, fig. 112. Young, with the feathers above bor- 

 dered with pale buff; black, duller. Downy young, grayish 

 above, palest on head ,fine- Fig. 112. 



ly mottled with dusky ; 

 white beneath. Breeds on 

 the Atlantic coast from 

 N. J. southward; formerly 

 wintered from the Caroli. 

 nas south to Patagonia, 

 now rare on the Atlantic 

 coast at this season ; acci- 

 dental along the coast to 

 Grand Menan. Frequents 

 sandy beaches and mud 

 flats feeding largely upon 

 oysters. Flight, slow, but^^^ 

 direct, with slow, strong 

 wing-beats. Note, a harsh, 

 discordant scream, 

 coast of the U. S. 



2. OYSTER-CATCHER, H. ostralegus. Differs from 

 1, in being smaller, 16.00; and in having the white of upper 

 tail coverts extended to lower back. Europe, and parts of 

 Asia and Africa; occasional in Greenland. 



O, G,a 1. 1-10. 



Not now very common on the Atlantic 



