158 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



black tips. A few black feathers on the thighs ; bill scarlet, cream colour at the 

 tip ; iris and eyelid red ; feet pinkish-red. Total length 500 mm. ; culmen 82, 

 wing 282-7, tail 116, tarsus 61. 



Adult female, Similar in colour of plumage to the adult male but larger and 

 with a longer bill. 



Immature. Differs from the adult in having the parts that are black in the 

 adult, brown. The wing-coverts and scapulars are tipped and edged with white. 

 The flank feathers are tipped with brown. The brown extends on to the lower back. 

 The upper tail-coverts are almost all brown, having only a slight edging of white. 

 Bill, culmen, and point dark brown ; legs and feet dark in the skin. 



Nestling in down. Greyish-buff, with black spots on the back, and with a 

 dark longitudinal stripe on each side above the wing. 



Nest. A depression in the sand. 



Eggs. Clutch, two ; ground-colour pale stone, spotted all over with marks of 

 very dark reddish-brown and lavender ; axis 61-65 mm., diameter 40-43. 



Breeding-season. August to January. 



Distribution and forms. Through Europe and Asia, the Moluccas, Australia 

 and New Zealand, wintering in North Africa and India. The number of forms is 

 not well known at present, probably many more than the five admitted by Mathews 

 in 1913 being later accepted ; these are : H. o. ostralegus Linne*, from Sweden, through 

 Europe, probably not in Turkestan, where a form with much longer bills may breed, 

 as all Indian birds in winter-plumage have much longer bills and more white on the 

 throat ; H. o. oscidans Swinhoe from China and Japan, with less white on the 

 primaries, longer bill and black tips to the upper tail-coverts ; H. o. picatus King 

 from Northern Territory and North-west Australia, with a black edging to the inner 

 wing, and small amount of white on inner web of primaries ; H. o. longirostris Vieillot 

 from East and South Australia, with no white on the inner webs of primaries, more 

 black on inner portion of wing, the black of the upper back extending on to the 

 lower back (the smaller form from North Queensland and South-east New Guinea 

 which Mathews named H. o. maUingleyi being probably later reinstated) ; and 

 H. o. finschi Martens from New Zealand, with still longer bills and apparently a 

 strong tendency to melanism as evidenced in the aberration named H. reischeki 

 Rothschild. 



no. Haematopus unicolor. BLACK OYSTERCATCHER. 



[Hcematopus unicolor Forster, Descr. Anim., ed. Licht., p. 112, (pref. Jan. 1st) 1844: New 

 Zealand. Extra-limital.] 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 8 (pt. xvra.), March 1st, 1845. Mathews, Vol. III., pt, 1, pi. 127, April 

 2nd, 1913. 



Hcematopus niger Stephens, in Shaw's Gen. Zool., Vol. XIV., pt. i., p. 336, 1826 : Australia. 



Not of Temminck, Man. d'Orn., 2nd ed., Vol. II.. p. 533, Oct. 21st, 1820 : South Africa. 



Hcematopus fuliginosus Gould, Birds Austr., pt. xvm. (Vol. IV., pi. 8), March 1st, 1845 : 



Tasmania. 



Hcematopus niger anstralasianus Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, Vol. XLIIL, 



p. 420, Sept. 1st, 1856 : New name for H. fuliginosus Gould. 



Hcematopus opthalmicus Castelnau and Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. I., p. 385, 



March 1877 : Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland. 



Hcematopus unicolor bermeri Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 214, Jan. 31st, 1912: 



Bernier Island, West Australia. 



DISTRIBUTION. Australia generally and Tasmania. 



Adult male. Entirely glossy black above and below ; bill orange-yellow ; iris 

 red ; eyelid orange-yellow ; feet dull brick-red. Total length 520 mm. ; culmen 82, 

 wing 297, tail 124, tarsus 51. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but larger, browner, and with a 

 longer bill. 



