DIBKCTOKY TO 1UKDS OF EASTEKX NOKTH AMERICA. 97 



GK Oyster-Catchers. Haematopoidae. 



Large birds, black and white or wholly black, with long 

 strongly compressed bills bright red in color, short legs 

 wholly covered with irregular scales, with three unwebbed 

 toes ; wings folding at tip of slightly rounded tail. Sexes, 

 similar, fig. 112. 



a. Oyster-Catchers. Haematopus. 



Characters as above. 



1. AMERICAN OYSTER-CATCHER, II. PAI.LIATUS. 

 19.00; bill, 3.25 ; head and neck all around, sooty black; up- 

 per parts, slaty-brown ; large patch on wing, upper tail cov- 

 erts, and beneath, white; bill and eyelids, carmine; feet, 

 pale pink, fig. 112. Young, with the feathers above bor- 

 dered with pale buff; black, duller. Downy young, grayish 

 above, palest on head ,fine- Fig. 112. 



ly mottled with dusky ; 

 white beneath. Breeds on 

 the Atlantic coast from 

 N. J. southward; formerly 

 wintered from the CarolL 

 nas south to Patagonia, 

 now rare on the Atlantic 

 coast at this season ; acci- 

 dental along the coast to- 

 Grand Menan. Frequents^ 

 sandy beaches and mud r 

 flats feeding largely upon 

 oysters. Flight, slow, but 

 direct, with slow, strong 

 wing-beats. Note, a harsh, 



G-, G, a 1. 1-10. 



discordant scream. Not now very common on the Atlantic 

 coast of the U. S. 



2. OYSTER-CATCHER, H. OSTRALEGUS. Differs from 

 1, in being smaller, 16.00; and in having the white of upper 

 tail coverts extended to lower back. Europe, and parts of 

 Asia and Africa ; occasional in Greenland. 



