THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. X.] FEBRUARY, 1886. (No. 110. 
ON THE GENUS H#MATOPUS OR OYSTERCATCHERS. 
By Henry SEEBoHM. 
BritisH ornithologists are too apt to limit their interest in 
birds to those of their native country, and thus to miss many of 
the great lessons which a broader view of the subject teaches. 
The study of any local fauna is a subject of great interest, but 
the interest is multiplied tenfold when the details collected in the 
course of such study are compared with those observed in other 
countries. The study of a part can never be so instructive as the 
study of a whole, and though life is not long enough for any one 
man to master the whole of such a complicated subject as the 
ornithology of the entire world, every ornithologist should 
monograph at least a few genera, to obtain some little insight » 
into the wide field of knowledge which such a task opens to - 
the view. 
The Oystercatchers are a small compact group of birds, very 
closely connected with each other, and very clearly differentiated 
from all other groups of birds. They present another peculiarity, 
which makes them additionally interesting—they are almost cos- 
mopolitan in their range. They are strictly shore birds, but they 
do not confine themselves to the sea-shore. They frequent the 
margins of lakes, the banks of great rivers, and are occasionally 
seen in other localities inland during migration. Some species 
are migratory, others resident, whilst some are migratory in one 
part of their range, and sedentary in another part. They are 
ZOOLOGIST.— FEB. 1886. E 
