30 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
HZMATOPUS CSTRALEGUS OSTRALEGUS Linnzus. 
OYSTER-CATCHER. 
Adults (sexes alike).—Head, neck, chest, wings, and terminal por- 
tion of tail plain black, the head and neck tinged with slaty in certain 
lights, the wings and tail slightly brownish; lower back, rump, upper 
tail-coverts, basal portion of tail, greater wing-coverts, and under 
parts of body immaculate white; throat sometimes with a white 
transverse band, and, more rarely, there are other white markings 
about the head, bill (in life) ‘‘vermilion, tinged with yellow as far 
-as the end of the nasal groove, the attenuated part dull yellow;’”? 
iris crimson; naked eyelids vermilion red; legs and feet ‘‘pale lake or 
purplish red.’””? 
Young.—Similar to adults but the darker portions more brownish, 
the feathers of back, wings, etc., with rusty margins, and bill dull 
orange-red or brownish. 
Downy young.—‘‘Clothed with down of a sandy-gray color, not. 
much mottled with black, of which two lines run down each side of 
the back, with a single narrow line down the rump to the tail, and a 
lateral stripe along the lower flanks; the head has some irregular black 
stripes and patches; throat dusky black; remainder of under surface 
of body white, as also the edge of the wing; thighs dusky blackish.’’* 
Adult male.—Wing, 250-267 (256.9); tail, 101-111 (107); culmen, 
62.5-78 (69.8); greatest depth of bill, 9-11 (10); tarsus, 43.5-53.5 
(48.1): middle toe, 32-37 (34.7).¢ 
Europe and western and central Asia, east to Yenesai River, Siberia; 
breeding from Arctic Circle to shores of temperate Europe, and Black 
and Caspian Seas; in winter southward to northern and middle Africa, 
shores of Red Sea, and Persian Gulf, India, northern Ceylon, etc. Oc- 
casional in southern Greenland (Julianehaab; Godthaab; Nenortalik). 
[Hzmatopus] ostralegus Linnavs, Syst. Nat., ed. 10,1, 1758, 152 (“‘Oedlandiae & 
Gotlandiae”’); ed. 12, i, 1766, 257. —Briinnicn, Orn. Bor., 1764, 57.—GMELIN, 
Syst. Nat., i, pt. ii, 1789, 694.—Latuam, Index Orn., ii, 1790, 752.—Turton, 
Syst. Nat., i, 1806, 419.—Gray, Hand-list, iii, 1871, 21, no. 10057.—Suarrez, 
Hand-list, i, 1899, 147.—Forxszs and Rozinson, Bull. Liverp. Mus., ii, no. 
2, 1899, 62. 
Hematopus ¢ ostralegus Temmincx, Cat. Syst., 1807, 175; Man. d’Orn., ii, 1820, 
531.—Viswtor, Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., xv, 1817, 408, part.—Rovux, Om. 
Prov., 1825, pl. 208.—Bonaparte, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., v. 1825, 106 
(crit.); Ann. Lyc. N. Y., ii, 1826, 300; Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, 46 
2 Dresser (Birds of Europe, vii, 1877, 568) considers these specimens with white 
throat-band as representing the winter plumage; but Macgillivray (Hist. Brit. Birds, 
iv, 155) asserts that they are of a purely individual character, and may be found in 
specimens taken at any season. 
> Macgillivray, Hist. Brit. Birds, iv, 1852, 154. 
