n,EMAT0P()DID.1? — THE OYSTER CATCHERS — H.EMATOPUS. 



113 



basal liulf of tbe secondaries, upper tail-coverts, sides of the runii), basal portion of the tail, and 

 tlic entile lower parts pure white. Bill (in liic) rich vermilion, most intense (jn middle third, 

 liasal third more scarlet, the tip yellowish ; cveliilM rich vermilion ; iris bri;,dit yellow ; legs and 

 feet pale dull fleshy white,* Yitang: Hea<l and neck dusky black, tbe pileuni and cheeks speckled 

 with dull fulvous, and the feathers surroundin;,' the base of tlie bill whitish ; njiper parts grayish 

 brown, each feather widely margined with pale fulvous or dull l>u(f. Otherwise much like the 

 mlult, but upper tail-coverts tijiped with bull', bill brownish, iris brown, and feet dull livid grayish. 

 Bdinuj ijDiiiKj: Head and neck dull light cinereous, finely mottled with darker, and with a narrow 

 postocular line of black ; rest of upper parts light fulvous gray, finely mottled with darker, and 

 relieved by two narrow stripes of black, which extend, parallel to one another, from the upper part 

 of the back to the rump. Lower parts, from tin; jugulum back, immaculate white. Hill dusky, 

 the ba.sal half of the mandible dull orange ; iris brown ; legs and feet pale tluU Hesh-color. 



Total length, 17 to 21 Inches ; extent, 32 to 30. Wing, ».75 to 11.00 ; culmen, 3.00 to 3.70 ; 

 tarsus, 2.05 to 2.55 ; niddle toe, 1.20 to 1.55. 



Specimens from nearly all parts of the ranG;e of the species have been compared. There is 

 little, if any, variation in colors, but the dimensions vary with the individual. Two Chilian 

 examples have the smallest bill, tlu; culmen measuring respectively 3.00 and 3.25, the greatest 

 dcjitli of the bill, forward of the nostril, being .48. In an example from Isabella Island, Western 

 .Mexico, these measurements are 3.10 and .55. In a specimen from Yucatan, the depth of the bill 

 i.s scarcely .45, the culmen being the same length as in the preceding. 



On the Atlaiitio coast tlio American Oyster Catclier occurs in more or less abxin- 

 daiice, from iMassacliiisetts to Central America. Like the //. ostndeffiis of Europe, 

 it i)robably wanders inland, especially up the inlets and estuaries of the Carolinas. 

 Wilson mentions having received a stuffed specimen shot from a flock that had been 

 first discovered on a beach near the entrance of Boston Harbor, and in the summer 

 of 1837 a pair of these birds were procured at Marslitield by Daniel Webster and 

 presented to the Boston Natural History Society. It Avas then no uncommon thing 

 to see specimens of this bird on sale in the Boston nuirket ; but this seldom or never 

 occurs now, and the bird for many years, so far as known, has been a stranger to 

 ]Massacliusetts. jMr. Boardman informs me that it is of occasional but rare occur- 

 rence in tho vicinity of Calais, Me., and that a single specimen has been taken on 

 Grand Me nan. 



An (Oyster Catcher was observed by Mr. Salvin at the mouth of the Nagualete 

 River, and he regarded it as being referable to this species ; he also mentions meeting 

 with it on the Pacific coast of (.iuatemala. Dr. (Jooper states that he obtained two 

 specimens of this bird — one at San Diego, the > lier on Santa Barbara Island, in 



* Fresh colors of several specimens killed in the breeding .ison at Cobb's Island, coast of Virginia, 

 vol,. I. — 15 



