82 



SHORE BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



FAMILY H^MATOPODID^E. OYSTER-CATCHERS. 

 GENUS HAEMATOPUS LINN. 



H>enATOPUS PALLIATUS Temm. 

 American Oyster -catcher. 



Winter plumage, male : Head 

 and neck, blackish or very dark 

 brown ; back, brown ; lower part 

 of breast and rest of under parts, 

 white; eyelids, rump, tips of 

 wing coverts, part of secondaries, 

 and basal portion of the tail feath- 

 ers, white; bill, reddish orange, 

 darkening at the tip (in summer, 

 deep red) ; legs, flesh color. 



Length, 17.40; wing, 10.05; 

 tail, 4.35; tarsus, 2.30; bill, 3.50. 



The American Oyster- 

 catcher is a strictly mari- 

 time species, frequenting 

 the beaches and flats ex- 

 posed by the tide, where it 

 searches for clams and small bivalves. It is not uncommon in suitable locali- 

 ties on the Atlantic coast from New Jersey southward, and on the Pacific side 

 from Lower California to Patagonia. Stragglers have been taken on the coast 

 of Maine and Massachusetts. The eggs are laid in a depression in the sand. 

 They are usually three or four, buff white in color, blotched and spotted with 

 chocolate brown, and measure about 2.20x1.50. 



palli.-itu-. 



