122 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CHARADRIIDJE. Genus H.EMATOPUS. 



Subfamily HJKMATOPODINM. 



COMMON OYSTER=CATCHER. 



ILEMATOPUS OSTEALEGUS. Linnceus. 

 PLATE XVIII. 



Haematopus ostralegus, Linu. Syst. Nat. i. p. 257 (1766) ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 152 

 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 567, pi. 533 (1877) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 294 

 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 4 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xii. 

 (1890); Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. p. 262 (1893); Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit, 

 iii. p. 181 (1896) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 119, pi. 38 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 107 (1896). 



Geographical distribution British : The Oyster-catcher breeds on 

 the Scilly Islands and in all suitable localities north of Yorkshire and Lancashire, 

 round the entire coast-line of Scotland and the adjacent islands, even extending 

 to St. Kilda, where I have taken its eggs. It is equally widely dispersed round the 

 Irish coasts, as well as on some of the inland loughs, and it also breeds on the shores 

 of the inland lochs and on the banks of large rivers in Scotland. During winter 

 it is widely dispersed on all our coasts, except in the extreme northern districts, 

 where it is only a bird of summer. Foreign : West Palsearctic region. Chiefly 

 a coast bird in the west, but east of E. long. 40 it breeds only on the shores of 

 lakes and the banks of rivers. It breeds on the coasts of North-western Europe, 

 round to the White Sea ; thence it becomes an inland species, frequenting the 

 rivers Volga, Kama, Petchora, and Obb. To the shores of the Baltic it is a 

 summer visitor only, but a resident on the coasts of Germany and France. In 

 East Prussia, however, it is very rare on passage. On migration it passes the 

 Mediterranean basin, but some remain to breed, and a few remain to winter in the 

 Rhone delta and along the Adriatic coast. It is a resident in the Caucasus, but 

 only a summer visitor to the Don, the Volga, the waters of West Siberia and 

 Turkestan, and it winters in Southern Arabia, on the Mekran coast, the west coast 

 of India, south to Ceylon, and on both coasts of Africa, to the Intertropical realm. 



Allied forms. Hamatopus osculans, an inhabitant of the coasts of North 

 China, Japan, the mouth of the Amoor, and thence round the shores of the Sea of 

 Okhotsk to Kamtschatka in summer ; in winter, of the coasts of South China, 

 accidentally wandering across country to Burma. Of doubtful specific rank ; but 

 appears constantly to differ from the Common Oyster-catcher in having much 

 less white on the quills, the white on the outer web of the primaries beginning 



