PAAUW PALATE 683 



procures them is desirable. Mr. Harting informs us that the bird 

 seems to lay its head sideways on the ground, and then, grasping 

 the limpet's shell close to the rock between the mandibles, use 

 them as scissor-blades to cut off the mollusk from its sticking-place. 

 The Oyster-catcher is not highly esteemed as a bird for the table. 



Differing from this species in the possession of a longer bill, in 

 having much less white on its back, in the paler colour of its 

 mantle, and in a few other points, is the ordinary American species, 

 already mentioned, H. palliatus. Except that its call-note, judging 

 from description, is unlike that of the European bird, -the habits of 

 the two seem to be perfectly similar ; and the same may be said 

 indeed of all the other species. The Falkland Islands are fre- 

 quented by a third, H. leucopus, very similar to the first, but with 

 a black wing-lining and paler legs, and Mr. Ridgway (Auk, 1886, 

 p. 331) thinks the Galapagos have a distinct species, H. galapagensis, 

 while the Australian Region possesses another, H. longirostris, with 

 a very long bill as its name intimates, and no white on its primaries. 

 China, Japan and possibly eastern Asia in general have an Oyster- 

 catcher which seems to be intermediate between the last and the first. 

 This has received the name of H. osculans ; but doubts have been 

 expressed as to its deserving specific recognition. Then we have a 

 group of species in which the plumage is wholly or almost wholly 

 black, and among them only do we find birds that fulfil the implica- 

 tion of the scientific name of the genus by having feet that may 

 be called blood-red. H. niger, which frequents both coasts of the 

 northern Pacific, has, it is true, yellow legs, but towards the 

 extremity of South America its place is taken by H. ater, in which 

 they are bright red, and this bird is further remarkable for its 

 laterally compressed and much upturned bill. The South-African 

 H. capensis has also scarlet legs ; but in the otherwise very similar 

 bird of Australia and New Zealand, H. unicolor, these members are 

 of a pale brick-colour. 



PAAUW (Peafowl), the Dutch name applied generally in South 

 Africa to some of the BUSTARDS. 



PADDA, see JAVA SPARROW. 



PADDY-BIRD, the Anglo-Indian name for any of the smaller 

 EGRETS, from their frequenting the rice-fields (padda). 



PALAMEDEA, see SCREAMER. 



PALATE, the roof of the mouth, whence PALATAL (commonly 

 Palatine) Bones, being the pair of bones which connect the MAXILLA 



