OYSTER-CATCHER. 5 



it only ranges as far north as the Arctic circle. It is a summer visitor to 

 the shores of the Baltic, but on the coasts of North Germany, Great Britain, 

 and France it is a resident. In the basin of the Mediterranean it is prin- 

 cipally known as passing through on spring and autumn migration ; but a 

 few remain to breed in the delta of the Rhone and on the Adriatic coast, 

 where also a few remain during winter. It winters on both coasts of 

 Africa, on the west as far south as Senegambia, and on the east as far 

 south as Mozambique. It is a resident in the Caucasus, but to the valleys 

 of the Don and the Volga, and to the lakes and rivers of Western Siberia 

 and Turkestan, it is a summer visitor, wintering on the Mekran coast and 

 the west coast of India as far south as Ceylon. 



On the western shores of the Pacific, breeding on the coasts of Kamt- 

 schatka and East Siberia, extending inland for perhaps a hundred miles in 

 the valley of the Amoor, and on the coasts of Japan and North China, 

 wintering on the coasts of South China, a very nearly allied species of 

 Oyster-catcher is found, H. osculans, which has once occurred in Burma. It 

 differs from the West Palsearctic species in having a longer bill, in having 

 the upper tail-coverts more constantly tipped with black, and in having 

 much less white on the primaries and secondaries, the white on the outside 

 web of the former not appearing until the sixth quill, and on the inside web 

 not until the second quill, instead of on the third and first respectively. 



In Australia and New Zealand H. longirostris occurs, in which all the 

 characters of the Pacific coast species are exaggerated, the primaries having 

 no white on either web. On the Falkland Islands and the islands of the 

 Straits of Magellan another species, H. leucopus, is found, which only 

 differs in having pale flesh-coloured instead of red legs. 



On the American continent, probably confined to the Atlantic coast of 

 North and South America, a still more extreme form, H. palliatus, is found, 

 in which not only is there no white on the primaries, but the rump also is 

 black, the upper tail-coverts only being white spotted with black. It is not 

 known that any of these four forms are connected by intermediate links, 

 the geographical range of each being isolated, at least during the breeding- 

 season *. Other more distantly allied species of Oyster-catchers occur 

 having no white on any part of the plumage. 



* Saunders, in the fourth edition of ' Yarrell's British Birds ' (iii. p. 297), states that 

 //. longirostris is found in Arrakan, China, and Japan, thus making its range inosculate 

 with that of H. osculans. I can find no evidence of any kind in support of this statement, 

 and believe it to be an error. 



M-v-srs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (Water Birds N. Amer. i. p. Ill) place H. longi- 

 rostris and H. osculans among the synonyms of H. ostralegus, stating that they are unable 

 to discover any differences of plumage. It seems impossible that they can have passed by 

 the great difference in the amount of white on the wings, and probably imagine it to be 

 attributable to age ; but this is certainly not the case. 



