246 H#MATOPODID®, OYSTER-CATCHERS, TURNSTONES. —GEN. 194, 195. 
Family HAAMATOPODIDA:. Oyster-catchers. Turnstones. 
A small family of two genera and six or eight species, with the bill hard, 
and either acute or truncate, the nasal fosse short, broad and shallow; the 
legs short, stout, brightly-colored. The two following genera differ much. 
Hematopus is 3-toed, with much basal webbing, the tarsi reticulate; the 
bill longer than the tarsus, stout, straight, constricted toward the base, 
compressed and truncate at the end, somewhat like a woodpecker’s; it is an 
efficient instrument for prying open the shells of bivalve mollusks. Strepsilas 
is 4-toed, with no obvious basal webbing; the tarsi scutellate in front, the 
bill sharp-pointed, not longer than the tarsus; its scientific and vernacular 
names are both derived from its curious habit of turning over pebbles along 
the beach in search of food. ‘There is but one species, cosmopolitan. 
194. Genus HASMATOPUS Linneus. 
Oyster-catcher. Head and neck blackish tinged with brown or ashy; 
back ashy-brown; below from the breast, eyelid, rump, tips of greater 
wing coverts, most sec- 
ondaries, and basal part 
of tail feathers, white ; 
rest of tail, and quills, 
blackish; bill and edges 
of eyelids red or orange ; 
legs flesh color; 17-18; 
wing 10; tail 44; bill 3. 
Fic. 157. Bill of Oyster-catcher. Fi Atlantic coast ; California 
(Cooper). Wrus., viii, 15, pl. 64; Nurrt., ii, 15; Avup., v, 236, pl. 324; 
CASS. cing SD s.n099s eee) are 2), SPATETATUSS 
Black Oyster-catcher. Nearly uniform blackish or sooty brown; the head 
and neck frequently with an ashy shade. Size of the foregoing. Pacific 
coast. Cass. in Bp., 700. WH. townsendii Aup., v, 243, pl. 325. NIGER. 
Oss. HA. bachmani Aup., v, 245, pl. 326; H. ater Cass. in Bp., 700 (if really 
distinct from the last, which is doubtful), is a South American species improperly 
attributed to our fauna. 
195. Genus STREPSILAS Linneus. 
Turnstone. Brant Bird. Calico-back. Adult in summer pied above 
with black, white, brown and chestnut-red, the latter color wanting in 
winter, and in young birds; below, from the 
breast (which is more or less completely black), 
throat, most of the secondaries, bases and 
shafts of primaries, and bases and tips of tail 
feathers, white; bill black; feet orange; 8-9; 
wing 53-6; tail2$; bill $, almost recurved, with 
ascending gonys; tarsus 1; tibie bare butalittle — F1G. 158. Bill of Turnstone. 
way. Both coasts, abundant during the migrations. Wus., vii, 32, pl. 57, f. 
1; Nott., ii, 30; Aup., v, 231, pl. 323; Cass. in Bp., 701. INTERPRES. 
