148 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



shot by Audubon, near Camden, in May, 1824, which served as the 

 subject for his plate of this species. 



Dr. W. L. Abbott secured one in Cape May county as late as June 

 3d in 1879. 



Family HJEMATOPODHXaS. 



OYSTER-CATCHERS. 



These are large Snipe-like birds with a strong, flat, knife-like bill, 

 which is used to pry open clams and other bivalves upon which they 

 live. They are strictly maritime, and but one species occurs in our 

 State, 



286 Hasmatopus palliatus Temminck. 

 Oyster-catcher. 



PLATE 26. 



Adults. Length, 17-21. Wing, 9.80-10.25. Whole head and neck, includ- 

 ing upper breast, black ; back, brownish ; secondaries, upper tail-coverts, base 

 of tail, lower breast and abdomen, white ; tip of tail, dusky ; bill, red. 



Young in first summer. Similar, but duller, upper parts margined with buff. 



Rare straggler from the south. 



It occurred regularly in Wilson's time (1812) in small parties of 

 two or three pairs together, and he found nests at Egg Harbor between 

 May 15th and 25th. 



Turnbull (1869) and Beesley 1 (1857) both give it as a rare sum- 

 mer resident. 



Mr. Scott 2 did not find it at Long Beach in 1877, but Mr. S. N. 

 Rhoads saw three there in the fall of 1880. At Tuckerton one was 

 shot by Mr. Jillson in May, 1894, and another was taken by a gunner 

 on Chester Island, in the Delaware, May 14th, 1891. 3 Mr. W. L. 

 Baily saw three at Wildwood August 9th and 12th, 1896. 



1 Geology of Cape May, p. 143. 



'Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 1879. 



Stone, Birds of E. Pa. and N. J., p. 42. 



