PAAUW—PALATE 683 
procures them is desirable. Mr. Harting informs us that the bird 
seems to lay its head sideways on the ground, and then, grasping 
the limpet’s shell close to the rock between the mandibles, use 
them as scissor-blades to cut off the mollusk from its sticking-place. 
The Oyster-catcher is not highly esteemed as a bird for the table. 
Differing from this species in the possession of a longer bill, in 
having much less white on its back, in the paler colour of its 
mantle, and in a few other points, is the ordinary American species, 
already mentioned, H. palliatus. Except that its callnote, judging 
from description, is unlike that of the European bird, the habits of 
the two seem to be perfectly similar; and the same may be said 
indeed of all the other species. The Falkland Islands are fre- 
quented by a third, H. leucopus, very similar to the first, but with 
a black wing-lining and paler legs, and Mr. Ridgway (duh, 1886, 
p. 331) thinks the Galapagos have a distinct species, H. galapagensis, 
while the Australian Region possesses another, H. longirostris, with 
a very long bill as its name intimates, and no white on its primaries. 
China, Japan and possibly eastern Asia in general have an Oyster- 
catcher which seems to be intermediate between the last and the first. 
This has received the name of H. osculans; but doubts have been 
expressed as to its deserving specific recognition. Then we have a 
group of species in which the plumage is wholly or almost wholly 
black, and among them only do we find birds that fulfil the implica- 
tion of the scientific name of the genus by having feet that may 
be called blood-red. H. niger, which frequents both coasts of the 
northern Pacific, has, it is true, yellow legs, but towards the 
extremity of South America its place is taken by H. afer, in which 
they are bright red, and this bird is further remarkable for its 
laterally compressed and much upturned bill. The South-African 
H. capensis has also scarlet legs; but in the otherwise very similar 
bird of Australia and New Zealand, H. unicolor, these members are 
of a pale brick-colour. 
P 
PAAUW (Peafowl), the Dutch name applied generally in South 
Africa to some of the BUSTARDS. 
PADDA, see JAVA SPARROW. 
PADDY-BIRD, the Anglo-Indian name for any of the smaller 
Ecrers, from their frequenting the rice-fields (padda). 
PALAMEDKEA, see SCREAMER. 
PALATE, the roof of the mouth, whence PALATAL (commonly 
Palatine) Bones, being the pair of bones which connect the MAXILLA 
