246 CHARADRTIDJE. 



inner secondary quills white, forming a wing-band; primary- 

 coverts black ; primaries the same, except part of the inner web 

 and a lanceolate white spot on the shaft and outer web, com- 

 mencing as a streak on the first primary and increasing inwards ; 

 tail white at base, black at end. 



Young birds are browner black, and have a broad band of white 

 on the throat. 



Bill bright reddish orange, dingy and yellowish at the tip ; 

 iricles red ; eyelids orange-red ; legs and feet brownish purple 

 (Hume}. 



Length 16 ; tail 4 ; wing 10 ; tarsus 2-1 ; bill from gape 3-25-3. 



Fig. 55. Head of H. ostralegus (immature). |. 



Distribution. The greater part of Europe and Asia, chiefly on 

 sea-coasts. A winter visitor to India, common on the coast of 

 Sind, Catch, and Kattywar ; less common on the west coast of 

 Indie and rare on the east coast, in Ceylon and in Burma. I do 

 not regard the Chinese and Japanese H. osculans, to which an 

 Arrakanese skin is referred by Sharpe, as worth specific distinction. 

 It only differs in having a little less white on the earlier primaries, 

 the difference in length of bill not being constant. It is probably 

 to some extent intermediate between H. oslraleyus and H. lonyi- 

 rostris. 



Habits, $c. The Oystercatcher is found singly or in parties, 

 and keeps much to rocks between tide-marks, feeding on molluscs 

 arid Crustacea ; it often visits fields or meadows near the sea, 

 but is rarely seen far from the coast. It is a wary bird, utters 

 a clear loud whistling note, and breeds in the North of Europe and 

 on the Caspian. 



Genus HIMANTOPUS, Brisson, 1760. 



Bill long, straight, hard, slender, pointed ; nostrils linear, near 

 the base of the bill, each situated in a groove that extends about 

 half the length of the mandible. "Wings long and pointed, 

 1st quill longest; tail short, even. Legs very long; tibia bare 

 for a long distance, three-quarters the length of the long tarsi, 

 which are reticulated throughout: no hind toe, outer joined to 



