360 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



or in pairs on the south shore of Long Island between Raynor South and 



Babylon. Our only definite records are as follows : 



New York harbor, N. Y. May 28, 1877. Robert Lawrence, N. 0. C. Bui. 5:117 



Pouquogue, L. I. Mar. 9, 1880. Butcher, Auk, 10: 272 



Greenport, L. I. June 2, 1882. Butcher, Auk, 3 : 439 



Long Island, Lawrence Collection 3166. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 



Also a specimen in the collection of Long Island Historical Society, from Long Island 



The Oyster-catcher is more strictly a maritime species than any other 

 of our shore birds and nearly rivals the Sickle-bill curlew in size, but is not 

 held in great esteem as a game bird. They frequent the bars and beaches, 

 feeding on marine insects, small crabs and bivalves which their knifelike 

 bill is admirably fitted to open. 



Order QALLINAE 



Gallinaceous birds 



This order (Galliformes, Sharpe's Hand-List) is well exemplified by 

 the common barnyard fowl. The bill is short, stout and convex, the tip 

 vaulted and obtuse, its texture homy throughout, the nasal fossae covered 

 by feathers or scales, the edges of the upper mandible overreaching the 

 lower, the ridge of the culmen high and dividing the frontal feathers. The 

 legs are stout and moderately long, feathered to the heel or farther in some 

 families, the tarsus scutellate or feathered, the front toes webbed at the 

 base, the hallux elevated and rather small except in guans or megapodes. 

 The wings are short, rounded, arched and strong. Cranium small. Body 

 heavy. Plumage aftershafted. Fifth cubital present. Palate schizog- 

 nathous. Nasals holorhinal. Cervicals 16. Sternum deeply two-notched. 

 Furculum or "wishbone" with a hypocleidium. Pectoral muscles three, 

 the second very large. Coeca long. Crop large. Gizzard very muscular. 

 Gall bladder present. Physiological nature praecocial and ptilopaedic. 

 Eggs numerous and large. Mating habits pol}-gamous. Feeding habits 

 chiefly terrestrial and largely rasorial. Flesh mostly edible, and light- 

 colored in most of the families. This order includes the megapodes (28 spe- 

 cies) of Polynesia, etc. ; the guans and curassows (59 species) of tropical 



